Downhill Demesne

Along the cliffs near Castlerock in County Londonderry, high above the Atlantic Ocean on the north-western coast of Northern Ireland sits the isolated estate of Frederick Augustus Hervey, the 4th Earl of Bristol. The property experienced a great deal of wealth and prosper during it’s first three decades under the earl’s ownership, however after having passed down through several generations, Downhill house eventually came into disrepair. Until after World War Two, the house was used to billet RAF servicemen and women before it was dismantled and left bare to it’s foundations in 1950 where it still stands along with the accompanying Mussenden Temple, built and dedicated to the memory of Hervey's cousin. Over the years the erosion of the cliff face at Downhill has brought Mussenden Temple ever closer to the edge, and in 1997 the National Trust carried out cliff stabilisation work in attempt to prevent the loss of the building. But on a good day the Grecian Architecture becomes illuminated in all of it’s former glory, where in latin the inscription on the building facing north towards the sea read’s "Tis pleasant, safely to behold from shore / The troubled sailor, and hear the tempests roar."

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