Scenic Place in County Londonderry

Binevenagh is a dramatic basalt escarpment in County Londonderry rising abruptly from the coastal plain north of Limavady to form one of the most impressive natural viewpoints in Northern Ireland, a plateau of open moorland with a sheer northern face that looks out over Lough Foyle and the Atlantic coast toward the hills of Donegal on the far shore. The area forms part of the Binevenagh Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and is managed as a country park, with waymarked walking routes along the escarpment providing access to some of the finest panoramic views available anywhere in the north of Ireland. The geology of Binevenagh reflects the great basalt flood volcanic episode that shaped much of the landscape of northeast Ireland approximately sixty million years ago. The thick basalt lava flows, which gave rise to the Giant's Causeway and the columnar basalt formations along much of the Antrim coast, are here exposed as a near-vertical cliff of considerable height, the horizontal jointing of the basalt producing a stepped profile on the face of the escarpment that is characteristic of this geological formation across the region. The moorland plateau above the escarpment is one of the better surviving examples of acid grassland and heath habitat in Londonderry, supporting the characteristic upland birds of Irish moorland including curlew, golden plover, merlin and peregrine falcon. The peregrine falcon population breeding on the Binevenagh cliffs is one of the most significant in Northern Ireland and has been monitored by conservation organisations for many years. The views from the escarpment are exceptional in both directions. To the north, Benone Beach and the full extent of Lough Foyle are visible, with the Inishowen Peninsula of Donegal closing the northern horizon. To the south, the agricultural landscape of the Roe valley and the more distant Sperrin Mountains provide a contrasting inland panorama.

Mussenden Temple is one of the most dramatic and photographed buildings in Ireland, a small circular classical temple perched right at the very edge of a 120-foot cliff along the north coast of Northern Ireland near Castlerock in County Londonderry. Nothing quite prepares you for the first sight of it: an elegant domed rotunda of precise classical proportions balanced improbably at the cliff edge above the Atlantic, its soft honey stone contrasting with the dark ocean below and the vast expanse of Downhill Strand sweeping to the east. The temple was built in 1785 by Frederick Augustus Hervey, the Bishop of Derry and fourth Earl of Bristol, a figure of considerable personal eccentricity and cultural sophistication who had travelled extensively in Italy and developed a passionate appreciation for classical architecture. Hervey commissioned the temple as a summer library, intended to house his substantial book collection in a building where he and his guests could read with the Atlantic as a backdrop. The design, executed by the Cork architect Michael Shanahan, was modelled on the Temple of Vesta in Rome, and the circular colonnade and domed roof are inspired interpretations of the classical original in local Downhill stone. The temple was named in honour of Hervey's cousin, Frideswide Mussenden, a young woman of whom the bishop was reportedly extraordinarily fond. She died before the temple was completed, and what began as a library gift became a memorial. The Latin inscription carved around the base of the frieze, taken from Lucretius, expresses the pleasure of watching storms from a safe vantage point, an apt choice for a building on a crumbling Atlantic cliff. The Downhill Demesne that surrounds the temple contains the substantial ruins of Downhill House, Hervey's palatial main residence, which was gutted by fire in 1851 and further stripped after the Second World War when it was used to billet Royal Air Force personnel. The contrast between the intact perfection of the small temple and the romantic ruin of the great house creates a landscape of considerable atmospheric power. The National Trust manages the property and has carried out cliff stabilisation work to protect the temple, which coastal erosion has brought ever closer to the cliff edge. The surrounding demesne grounds are freely accessible throughout the year from dawn to dusk, with car park charges applying. The clifftop walk around the estate is superb, with views west across Downhill Beach toward Magilligan Point and Donegal, and east toward the headlands of the Causeway Coast. The Bishop's Gate Garden and Walled Garden add botanical interest to a visit of considerable historical and scenic richness.