Dictionary of Irish Architects 1720 - 1940

Selected: CO. DERRY, DOWNHILL

Name: SHANAHAN, MICHAEL [1]
Building: CO. DERRY, DOWNHILL
Date: 1772-1791p
Nature: Building of house (after designs by James Wyatt) supervised by MS, who also superintended building of Mussenden Temple to cornice level (1783-84), Mausoleum (with David McBlain, 1779c) and probably Bishop's Gate.
Refs: Estimate in hand of MS of works to be finished at Downhill, 3 Jan 1777 totalling £987-18s and letter from MS to Lord Bristol, 22 Jul 18778,  in PRONI, D2798/2/3,8, see PRONI e-catalogue;  A. Day, P. McWilliams & L. English, eds., Ordnance Survey Memoirs of Ireland Vol. 11, 46,58,60-61; P. Rankin, Irish Building Ventures of the Earl Bishop of Derry (UAHS, 1972),12-32; Alistair Rowan, The Buildings of Ireland: North West Ulster (1979), 245-8

Name: WYATT, JAMES #
Building: CO. DERRY, DOWNHILL
Date: 1776ca
Nature: Built by Michael Shanahan in accordance with a plan by JW. for Frederick Hervey, Bishop of Derry. Other architects also involved. Robinson suggests that JW may also have been involved in design of commemorative cenotaph to 2nd Earl of Bristol and Mussenden temple.
Refs: A. Day, P. McWilliams & L. English, eds., Ordnance Survey Memoirs of Ireland Vol. 11, 60; Hervey Bruce Letter Book I in collection of Lady C. Hervey Bruce, Newmarket, Suffolk (now in West Suffolk Record Office?); Howard Colvin, A Biographical dictionary of British architects 1600-1840 (4th edn., 2008), 1183;  John Martin Robinson, James Wyatt: architect to George III (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2012), 104,112,172-4,330..

Name: HENDERSON, JOHN [1]#
Building: CO. DERRY, DOWNHILL
Date: 1778
Nature: JH invited by Bishop of Derry to prepare design for summer dining-room at Downhill but subsequent design by Soane preferred.
Refs: Pierre de la Ruffinière Du Prey, 'Soane and Hardwick in Rome: a Neo-Classical partnership', Architectural History XV (1972), 52;  Howard Colvin, A Biographical dictionary of British architects 1600-1840 (4th edn., 2008) , 512.
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Name: MCBLAIN, JAMES
Building: CO. DERRY, DOWNHILL
Date: 1778ca-1785ca
Nature: Various works including setting of stone of courtyard gate, 1778, quarrying and hewing stone for mausoleum, 1778 or 79, possibly lodge at Bishop's Gate, 1784, facing of house, 1785ca
Refs: Letter from Michael Shanahan to Lord Bristol, 22 Jul 1778, in PRONI, D2798/2/8 (see PRONI e-catalogue);  T.G.F. Paterson, 'The Edifying Bishop', BIGS 9 (Jul-Dec 1966), 70(illus.),72(illus.); P. Rankin, Irish Building Ventures of the Earl Bishop of Derry (UAHS, 1972), 22,23,28,33

Name: SOANE, JOHN (SIR) #
Building: CO. DERRY, DOWNHILL
Date: 1780
Nature: Proposed alterations, for Frederick Hervey, Earl Bishop of Derry. Not executed.
Refs: Plan and laid-out wall elevations for a designs for summer dining room and classical dog kennel in Soane Museum, Vol. 90, nos. 1 & 2; perspectives of alternative designs for the summer Dining Room in Soane Museum, Drawer 13, Set 4 (RA lecture drawings), nos. 1 & 2; P. Rankin, Irish Building Ventures of the Earl Bishop of Derry (UAHS, 1972), 18;  Pierre de la Ruffinière Du Prey, 'Soane and Hardwick in Rome: a Neo-Classical partnership', Architectural History XV (1972), 52;  Pierre de la Ruffinièredu Prey, '"Je n'oublieray jamais": John Soane and Downhill', BIGS 21 (Jul-Dec 1978), 24-36; Dorothy Stroud, Sir John Soane, architect (1984), 46-47,239.

Name: ADAM, ROBERT #
Building: CO. DERRY, DOWNHILL
Date: 1780
Nature: Design for proposed dining room and other adds. Not executed.
Refs: Alistair Rowan, The Buildings of Ireland: North West Ulster (1979), 245

Name: LOUCH, RICHARD [1]
Building: CO. DERRY, DOWNHILL
Date: 1783
Nature: 'Mr Loutch' working in gallery; supplies plan for gallery. For Frederick Augustus Hervey, Bishop of Derry.
Refs: P. Rankin, Irish Building Ventures of the Earl Bishop of Derry (UAHS, 1972), 20-21.

Name: CUVILLIE, JOHN-BAPTIST *
Building: CO. DERRY, DOWNHILL
Date: 1783
Nature:  JBC supplies specimens of 5 different types of scagliola ('Porphyry – Brocketelli – Sciena [–] Verd Antique, and Jasper') to Michael Shanahan as possible finishes for the interior decoration of the Mussenden Temple; 'if the Columns or pilasters within the Temple were finish in like any of the above Specimens it would be one of the finest things in England or Ireland'.
 
Refs:  Letter from Michael Shanahan to Frederick Hervey, Bishop of Derry, 2 May 1783 (PRONI D2798/2/24) (reference from Peter Fox, Jun 2020)

Name: COLUMBANI, PLACIDO #
Building: CO. DERRY, DOWNHILL
Date: 1783-1785
Nature: PC said to have worked in a supervisory capacity and on plumbing
Refs: Peter Rankin, Irish Building Ventures of the Earl Bishop of Derry (UAHS, 1972), 13-14.

Name: MCBLAIN, DAVID
Building: CO. DERRY, DOWNHILL
Date: 1786;1788
Nature: Dovecote with ice-house under it on one side of walled garden; OS memoirs say he cased house in freestone after 1787, built Mussenden temple from cornice upwards, 1788, and erected monument (mausoleum) with M. Shanahan, but all these refs probably to James McBlain.
Refs: A. Day, P. McWilliams & L. English, eds., Ordnance Survey Memoirs of Ireland Vol. 11, 60,61; P. Rankin, Irish Building Ventures of the Earl Bishop of Derry (UAHS, 1972), 33

Name: LANYON, JOHN
Building: CO. DERRY, DOWNHILL
Date: 1876a
Nature: Restoration and alteration, for Sir Hervey H. Bruce. Contractor: James Henry, Belfast.
Refs: JL's account for works and letters to Bruce re same, 22,24 Mar 1879, in PRONI, D2798/9/48-50 (see PRONI e-catalogue);  B 34, 8 Jan 1876, 46; IB 18, 15 Jan 1876, 27; Alistair Rowan, The Buildings of Ireland: North West Ulster (1979), 246.