Mussenden Temple, Downhill, Castlerock, Co. Londonderry

Mussenden Temple

Mussenden Temple is a free-standing circular former library, built circa 1785 to designs by Michael Shanahan for Frederick Hervey, Earl Bishop of Derry. It stands on the cliff edge of the north Londonderry coast within the Downhill Demesne, positioned directly north of the rear elevation of Downhill House and to the northeast of the walled garden and Dovecote. It is accessed via the Lion Gate to the southwest. The building is modelled on the Temple of Vesta at Tivoli — a model the Earl Bishop had at one point considered physically acquiring and transporting to Ireland — and was dedicated to the memory of his cousin Frideswide Mussenden, who died aged 22 and to whom he is said to have been romantically inclined. It is widely recognised as one of Northern Ireland's greatest landmarks and most iconic buildings, and has group value with the other listed structures on the Downhill estate.

Construction and Materials

Bills for clearing the foundations survive from April and May 1783, and the total construction cost of £1,169 7s 3½d is recorded in the Hervey papers for 1785. The building was constructed of Bann brick, made in large quantities on site, on a base of basalt, with the exterior clad in freestone brought by sea from Ballycastle. The external ornamentation was carved by James McBlain and his son David, with the exception of the bishop's arms over the entrance, which were sculpted in Portland stone at Shanahan's Cork marble works and installed in 1788. The timber carving was carried out by a craftsman named Forbes. According to the Ordnance Survey Memoirs, Shanahan was responsible for the building from foundation to cornice, while David McBlain completed the work from the cornice to the top of the dome. Shanahan had proposed a skylight at the top of the dome and also wished to cover the roof in gilded metal; in the event it was finished in slate in the pattern style, though it is now clad in copper.

Exterior

The building is double-height, single-storey over a basement, and circular on plan. The copper-clad domed roof rises from a copper-lined sandstone blocking course and is surmounted by a carved stone urn with swag motif. The walls are of coursed sandstone ashlar, articulated by sixteen engaged Corinthian columns framing blind bays, with the exception of the entrance bay to the south and window openings to the north, east and west. Each bay features a wave-scroll — a variation on the Vitruvian scroll — at sill level, a moulded plinth course, and a decorative swagged panel spanning between the capitals. The columns support a fluted architrave with a Greek key soffit and a continuous frieze carrying an applied copper inscription, with alternating carved bishop's mitres and lions positioned over each capital. The inscription, originally formed from gilded metal letters, reads: "Suave, mari magno turbantibus aequora ventis e terra magnum alterius spectare laborem" — quoted from Lucretius, De Rerum Natura, II.1–2 — and translates as "Tis pleasant, safely to behold from shore / The troubled sailor, and hear the tempests roar." The frieze is surmounted by a continuous dentilled and modillioned cornice. The columns rest on a continuous sandstone base with a fluted frieze below, which in turn rests on a coursed, squared, rough-hewn basalt base at basement level.

The window openings to the north, east and west bays are square-headed with voussoired heads, flush sills and replacement 9-over-9 timber sash windows. The south bay has a square-headed door opening with a decorative convex Portland stone architrave surround, a fluted frieze with a blank tablet, and a hood cornice. Replacement double-leaf flush-panelled timber doors open onto a sandstone platform with twelve swept sandstone steps and replacement decorative iron balustrades. At basement level, the east and west bays have voussoired round-headed openings fitted with replacement iron gates.

Interior

It is believed the interior was originally decorated with pilasters finished in scagliola and a coffered ceiling in blue and gilt with plaster rosettes, though this decoration no longer survives. A recent project has attempted to virtually reconstruct the original interior. The building was intended as a summer library, used in conjunction with the library in Downhill House itself; as late as 1802, Arthur McMackin wrote to Hervey in Italy complaining of non-payment for cleaning the books, a task carried out four times a year.

Historical Context and Use

The temple reflects the Earl Bishop's particular enthusiasm for circular structures; he built a comparable building at Ballyscullion in 1787 and another at Ickworth in Suffolk. Garden temples of this kind were understood as expressions of continuity with the taste and civilisation of the Augustan age, which provided the classical inspiration for much 18th century landscaping in Britain and Ireland. Simple circular temples had been appearing on Irish estates since the mid-18th century, with examples at Castletown, Dromoland and Belan. Mussenden Temple is placed by architectural historian James Howley among a group of just four Irish temples of the highest artistic quality, alongside those at Castle Ward, Mount Stewart and Marino.

The Earl Bishop was actively involved in efforts to secure relief for Catholics from elements of the penal laws, and in accordance with this outlook he made the lower part of the temple available as a chapel for his Roman Catholic servants, and paid the priest one guinea per month, a contribution that ceased on the Bishop's death. The Ordnance Survey Memoirs confirm this arrangement, and the tradition was continued into the 19th century by the Reverend Henry Hervey Bruce. The temple appears as "Temple" on the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1831 and as "Mussenden Temple" by 1904. In Griffith's Valuation of 1856–64, it is recorded as a "Temple (used as RC Church)" valued at £11 10s, with the valuation later reduced to £2 and the note that the temple was by then "a worthless, ruinous tower, the roof and windows broken in." After the 1870s it was subsumed into the valuation of the house and outbuildings.

In 1946 the house and demesne were purchased by F.W. Smyth, who presented the temple as a gift to the National Trust in 1949. The Trust immediately began a programme of restoration, including replacement of the roof fabric, though this work suffered a setback when the roof was blown off in 1952.

Setting

The temple stands on the edge of a cliff on the north coast of County Londonderry, and its setting overlooking the Atlantic has been described as sublime. However, an early watercolour shows that the setting was not always so dramatic: when first built, a broad path and wall ran in front of the building. Cartographic evidence from Ordnance Survey maps of 1904 and 1980 confirms that the cliff line has been receding, and in the late 1990s it was necessary to stabilise the upper cliff face by inserting rock bolts and anchors.

Today the temple is open to the public and has served as a venue for music recitals, poetry readings, dramatic performances and, in recent years, civil wedding ceremonies.