
Photo: Anne Burgess, CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons
Built around 1691, this thatched cottage is one of the oldest buildings in Ulster. It's now managed by National Trust, and closed for repairs.
Hezlett House is a 17th-century thatched cottage located in Castlerock, County Londonderry, Northern Ireland. Built around 1691, it is one of the oldest buildings still in use anywhere in Ulster. The cottage has a cruck structure and is situated at the crossroads near the village. It was originally a rectory or farmhouse.
© OpenStreetMap contributors
Wacky ruined estate on a headland, built in the late 18th century for the Lord Bishop of Derry. It's within walking distance of the village but most visitors park on A2 either at Bishop's Gate (small but free) and walk up through the woods, or at Lion's Gate (charges) and enter via the Walled Garden, which is more like a walled lawn with toilets. On the headland you first reach the mausoleum to the bishop's brother, then the vast shell of the mansion: this was fire-damaged in 1851, restored, then abandoned and largely dismantled in the 1950s. (A visitor of 1812 reckoned he'd "never seen so bad a house occupy as much ground.") The temple teeters on the edge of a cliff, which has been stabilised to prevent it tumbling to the shore way below. It's modelled on Bramante's Tempietto in Rome, which is in turn based on the Temple of Vesta at Tivoli. Also nearby is a Belvedere.