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 Downhill was heavily influenced by recent artistic ideas of ‘the sublime’ - the contrast of man and nature- and this was no more apparent in the location of its library – the Mussenden Temple - which was built to strict classical rules on top of the nearby cliff. On on its frieze is carve the following motto: ‘SAUVE MARI MAGNO TURBANTIBUS AEQUORA VENTIS’ – ‘Tis pleasant to watch from land the great struggling of others when winds whip up the waves on a mighty sea’.
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 The finest piece of architecture of the period in this area was Downhill House built by the Earl Bishop, James Hervey. Bishop of Derry and Earcl of Bristol between 1775 and 1785. Hervey was a very rich man who travelled extensively on the Continent and invested heavily in his lands as well as in his diocese. Downhill was built on church land in a dramatic cliff top location. No expense was spared as its grand entrance gate – ‘the lions’ gate’ of 1780 attests.
 In the eighteenth century there were also houses built as summer residences along the coast of this area. The most important of these was Seaport Lodge in Portballintrae. This was built by James Leslie of Leslie Hill a large estate near Ballymoney around 1770. it makes an elegant, classical contrast in its white render to the wild green landscape surrounding the building.
 Landmore House, Agivey, was constructed in 1788 for James Orr a linen mill owner. it is a lager double pile (two roofs deep) house. Its basement is constructed in basalt rock with brick trims and the main stories from local Agivey Brick. It has a very fine entrance door and the whole building is beautifully and carefully proportioned. The Ordnance Survey Memoirs of the 1830's record that the building commanded a 'rich view of County Antrim and the River Bann. Its winding course appears to good effect at the bottom of the lawn above the plantations that surround it.' The site is not much different today.
Brickfields (where clay was dug up, shaped, and fired, to make bricks) are shown along a large stretch of the River Bann near this area in the 1830 OS map. The accompanying memoirs talk about all the local buildings being constructed from this and that the output was also sent up the river to be sold in Coleraine. The production appears to have reduced by the end of the nineteenth century but some brickfields are still shown on the c1900 OS map. Brick production in the area is first recorded in 1615. George Canning, the agent of the Worshipful Company of Ironmongers, noted the manufacture of bricks at a kiln across the Bann from Agivey where they were then brought over to complete the upper floors of a stone-built castle for the Ironmongers.  By the mid Eighteenth Century, things had settled down significantly and the economy (fuelled by linen manufacture as well as agriculture) was doing well enough to support investment in buildings. Prosperous linen merchants and landlords followed a similar approach for their houses. Some large houses were commenced for landlords (the lands of the London Guilds were leased out as were some of the church lands). A good example is Cromore House near Portstewart. John Cromie built the central portion of the house ( four windows wide) at this time. The building was remodelled after 1834 when the bays were added and the Greek temple like side wings. John Cromie's family are first recorded in the mid-17th century, based in Tullaghgore, Co. Antrim, however by the mid-18th century he had moved here ( where his his maternal ancestors originated). These ancestors, the Stewarts of Ballyleese, provided the name for Portstewart which he also founded in 1792.
 Strict rules in the Eighteenth century also forbade the ordination of Catholic Bishops (and thereby the ordination of new priests), the construction of new catholic churches and impeded Catholic land purchase. Nonconformist churches were not allowed towers or steeples and when Catholics were allowed to build again, in the next century, they faced similar restrictions. The result was a very similar approach to church design between Presbyterians and Catholics. This tended to simple rectangular ‘barn’ churches with the pulpit or the altar on the centre of a side wall and later extensions into a T form plan. Early examples of the type in this area have all been replaced, but St Mary’s Dunboe (1856) and Second Kilrea Presbyterian Church (1838) illustrate the approach.
 The settlement after 1691 confirmed the land ownership that had existed in this area from the time of the Plantation, (the MacDonnell’s, in Dunluce, who had supported James II, successfully petitioned to retain their lands) but, as the Anglican dominated Irish Parliament sought to exert its authority, it enacted a series of ‘penal laws’ which aimed to reduce Catholicism and Nonconformist Christian practice on the island. Presbyterian Ministers, associated with the Scottish settlers, had to either comply with Anglican norms or quit church property – as many did- and found new churches. This, coupled with economic difficulties, led to a significant migration of Presbyterians from this area to Massachusetts in 1718. They were led by James McGregor, minister of Aghadowey. Two of the places where the settled in New England were subsequently renamed to remind the migrants of home. The township of Nutfield was renamed 'Londonderry' in 1722 and 'Boston Township No 2' was renamed 'Colerain.' (https://discoverulsterscots.com/emigration-influence/america/1718-migration)
In 2018 the Ulster Historical Foundation carried out research to see if there are any remains of buildings associated with the the places these migrants left behind. Through map research they identified locations where abandoned houses were recorded on the 1830 ordnance survey maps that might relate to dwellings abandoned by the migrants. At Brockaghboy near Garvagh where ruins remain, a small archaeological excavation established that the building probably dated from the eighteenth century an could be a remote place farmed by some of the migrants before they left for the 'New World.'  Not surprisingly, with all the war and destruction, not much survives in this area from the seventeenth century. St Paul’s Church of Ireland in Garvagh, is dated 1670. St Paul’s Articlave, 1690. Parts of of Bovagh House near Aghadowey may date to the early part of the century. The rear of Laurel Hill House in Coleraine may also date to that period. The stand out survivor, however, is Hazlett House near Castlerock. Said to have been built as a rectory for Articlave church, it has a ‘cruck truss’ construction. That is, the timber roof structure is built up from the floor. This has been scientifically dated to 1690. This technique was common in England at the time and also shown on Gaelic houses on Elizabethan maps but, with the loss of the great forests during this century (as timber was commercially exploited) it became very rare. it is currently preserved and opened for public access by the National Trust https://www.nationaltrustcollections.org.uk/place/hezlett-house
 A little to the south of the former Coleraine Council area is this remnant of the early years of the Plantation. This is the remains of a furnace used to smelt iron at high temperatures. The fuel for this? Charcoal from the plentiful forests in the surrounding area. By 1654 this was largely gone and the furnace has fallen out of use. A mile to the west of this is the 'Glass House Field' where the plentiful timber was used for another manufacturing process. Glass was exported from here between 1611 and 1618 when the process was stopped due to a lack of a patent. There are no above ground remains today. To the east are the ruins of the Salterstown Bawn. This, like Movanagher to the north, was attacked and badly destroyed during the 1641 rebellion (when Catholic lords and military officers took advantage of the dispute between the English Parliament and King Charles I to rise up across the island.by purporting to be on the side of the king. In Ulster they swiftly overwhelmed many of the smaller settlements of the new Planters. The conflict continued until a new settlement was imposted by Cromwells's New Model Army after 1650) Both of these settlements were never rebuilt.
 The original houses of plantation Coleraine were timber framed as houses of the time were constructed in England. Some sources suggest that this timber was transported from England, but this is highly unlikely given the large forests which existed nearby at the time. In 1813 the Rev G v Sampson reported that some of these survived in the Diamond. These had a covered way along the front or 'pentways', which by that time had been filled in. The above sketch is a quick copy of a watercolour by Jon Henry Campbell from around the same time where these buildings can be seen as well as a similar lean to arrangement in the distance opposite the trees of St Patrick's churchyard. in more recent times the remains of slightly later timber buildings were found in New Row in the 1980's. It remains possible that some very early buildings still survive behind later facades within the town.
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