Ballyscullion House County Derry.

(Irish: Baile Ui Scuillín)
O'Scullion's town.

Ballyscullion House was built by Frederick Augustus Hervey, Bishop of Derry and Earl of Bristol, a man notorious for unfinished projects, posterity has unfairly added Ballyscullion house to the list, the Bishop went off to Europe perhaps to search for works of art etc to furnish his grand project. Perhaps the truth of the matter is that time overtook him, as it inevitably will us all. It is said the project was modeled on his ancestral home Icksworth, near Ipswich in England, others contend that it was the other way around. Work began around 1787, parts of the interior were decorated with Italian marble, the building contained a large picture gallery, it was described by his wife in 1782 as 'A stupendous monument to folly.' It was planned to have 365 windows one for each day of the year, unfortunately for Hervey his grandiose plans coincided with the governments introduction of the Window Levy a tax designed to raise revenue to pay for the Napoleonic war.

Bishop Hervey died in 1803, he is remembered for his architectural extravaganza such Ballyscullion House and the spire with no church (More later) He championed Catholic emancipation so was not totally divorced from the realities of the world in which he lived. After his death the property at Bellaghy and Downhill went to his cousins the Bruce's, over a period of time Ballyscullion House was dismantled and sold, the only part of it which can be located today is the grand Portico which was transported to Belfast in 1813, allegedly by barge up the river Bann across Lough Neagh, thence to Belfast via the Lagan Canal, which seems entire feasible and sensible, it can now be seen in the front of St. George's Church in High Street Belfast.

Nearby the site of Ballyscullion House is Church Island (Inis Taoide) the Annals of Ulster written in the 11th century state that a settlement called Inis Taoide (Taoides Island) existed on the island in the 5th century, some scholars are of the opinion that St Patrick traveled up the River Bann to Lough Beg (Small lough) met Taoide and encouraged him to found a monastery on the island. There are remains on the island but these are thought to date from the 12th century, there is a stone known as the Bullaun Stone, this is a stone with a carved hole designed to hold water it is thought that this may date from Taoide's church.

When building his house the Bishop wanted to look out of one of his many windows and see a church spire so he built a spire on the island, during the second World War an American plane stationed nearby collided with the spire, bending the top of it a little, this has recently been repaired.