Downhill Demesne, on the north coast of County Londonderry, was built by Frederick Augustus Hervey, Earl of Bristol and Bishop of Derry, known as the Earl Bishop. Mussenden Temple, a circular library on a cliff edge modelled on the Temple of Vesta, was built in 1785 and dedicated to his cousin Frideswide Mussenden. A history site notes that the popular idea that the Earl Bishop and Frideswide were lovers is a myth: she was Mrs Mussenden, a young mother who died at 22.
Spirited Isle tells the ghost side. A pale, sorrowful figure is often seen near the temple on mist-laden evenings, standing at the cliff edge or in its shadows and gazing out to sea, bringing a sudden chill and the faint scent of wildflowers, her favourites. Mysterious lights are said to flicker near the temple and along the paths after visitors have left, and cold spots are felt at the entrance and in the ruined library of Downhill House. The Earl Bishop himself is said to be seen as a tall, robed figure striding through the broken corridors after dusk, with footsteps echoing and a sudden oppressive heaviness among the ruins.
All this is told without witnesses or dates. The mix of a doomed beloved and a flamboyant bishop is likely partly a product of the tale of the temple.
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