Mussenden Temple is a small circular building located on cliffs near Castlerock

Castlerock

Castlerock is a seaside village in County Londonderry, Northern Ireland. It is situated between Coleraine and Derry and is very popular with summer tourists, having numerous apartment blocks and three caravan sites. Castlerock Golf Club has both 9 and 18-hole links courses bounded by the beach, the...

 in County Londonderry

County Londonderry

The place name Derry is an anglicisation of the old Irish Daire meaning oak-grove or oak-wood. As with the city, its name is subject to the Derry/Londonderry name dispute, with the form Derry preferred by nationalists and Londonderry preferred by unionists...

, high above the Atlantic Ocean

Atlantic Ocean

The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about , it covers approximately 20% of the Earth's surface and about 26% of its water surface area...

 on the north-western coast of Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...

.

It was built in 1785 and forms part of the estate of Frederick Augustus Hervey, the 4th Earl of Bristol

Frederick Hervey, 4th Earl of Bristol

Frederick Augustus Hervey, 4th Earl of Bristol, PC , known as The Earl-Bishop, was Bishop of Cloyne from 1767 to 1768 and Bishop of Derry from 1768 to 1803.- Life :...

, Bishop of Derry. Built as a library and modelled on the Temple of Vesta

Temple of Vesta

The Temple of Vesta is an ancient edifice in Rome, Italy, located in the Roman Forum near the Regia and the House of the Vestal Virgins. The temple's most recognizable feature is its circular footprint. Since the worship of Vesta began in private homes, the architecture seems to be a reminder of...

 in Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

, it is dedicated to the memory of Hervey's cousin Frideswide Mussenden.

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

National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty

The National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, usually known as the National Trust, is a conservation organisation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland...

 carried out cliff stabilisation work to prevent the loss of the building.

The inscription around the building reads,
"Tis pleasant, safely to behold from shore/
The rolling ship, and hear the tempest roar."
The quotation is from Lucretius

Lucretius

Titus Lucretius Carus was a Roman poet and philosopher. His only known work is an epic philosophical poem laying out the beliefs of Epicureanism, De rerum natura, translated into English as On the Nature of Things or "On the Nature of the Universe".Virtually no details have come down concerning...

.

Now part of the National Trust property of Downhill Estate & Mussenden Temple, the grounds encompassing Mussenden Temple, and its manor house (Downhill Castle

Downhill House

Downhill House was a mansion built in the 18th century for Frederick Hervey, 4th Earl of Bristol at Downhill, Northern Ireland. Much of the building was destroyed by fire in 1851 before being rebuilt in the 1870s...

) are open to the public all year, from dawn to dusk.