Murland mausoleum, Clough, County Down

To the north-east of the Non-Subscribing church in Clough stands the Murland mausoleum which was carefully conserved by the Follies Trust in 2019.

Funding for the project came from Historic Environment Division of the Department for Communities, Allchurches Trust, the Follies Trust and donations; this assistance is gratefully acknowledged.

The juxtaposition of the church and the mausoleum can be seen in the photograph.

The church was built in 1837 in a Classical style; the gabled front has two large granite Ionic columns in front of a semi-circular recess containing the entrance doorway with fanlight above.

Below is a short video (5 minutes) about the Murland Mausoleum at Clough, its background, and recent restoration by the Follies Trust :

The Ulster Architectural Heritage Society list describes the mausoleum as ‘the phenomenal Murland vault of about 1860, furnished with all the pompe funebre of the classical manner, with trimmings.’ It was designed by Thomas Turner and is a fine example of the genre. James Stevens Curl in ‘Mausolea in Ulster’ (1978) describes it as ‘typical of opulent burial in the nineteenth century.’

On 13 March 2019 at 7.30pm in the Non-Subscribing Presbyterian Church in Clough (the mausoleum is in the graveyard) Dr Finbar McCormick gave a talk which looked at the history and development of memorials to the dead in Ireland and beyond. It showed how the Reformation changed people’s attitude to commemorating the dead and demonstrated how Presbyterianism in Scotland played such an important role in the development of the modern mausoleum. Dr McCormick also showed how classical ideas had such an influence on mausoleum design as can be seen in the magnificent Murland mausoleum at Clough.