Tag Archives: Gate Lodge

Through the Gate




After Monday’s post showing the wonderfully restored walled garden at Glenarm Castle, County Antrim, here is the Barbican Gate. Located on the far side of a bridge leading into the village, the building dates from 1825 when designed by Sir William Morrison to accompany the transformation of the main house from a classical residence into a Tudoresque fantasy for his client, Anne Katherine Mac Donnell, Countess of Antrim. Like a miniature castle, the Barbican is replete with turrets, towers and battlements and over the main entrance can be seen a sandstone coat of arms which was originally on the facade of Glenarm Castle and records its construction by Randle Mac Sorley Mac Donnell, first Earl of Antrim and his wife Alice O’Neill. The Barbican Gate has been restored by the Irish Landmark Trust and is now available to rent for short stays. 




The Irish Aesthete is generously supported by

Wilful Waste



Following Monday’s entry on St Loman’s Hospital in Mullingar, County Westmeath, nothing better exemplifies the Health Service Executive’s indifference to the condition of historic buildings supposedly under its care than the state of the property’s gatelodge. This charming little property, adjacent to a road leading into the centre of the town, dates from the last quarter of the 19th century and was soon after extended in a style ‘similar to a Swiss cottage’ to provide a residence for the institution’s head male attendant. When surveyed for buildingsofireland.ie in 2004 it was in decent condition and used as an office. Since then, instead of being refurbished and providing much needed accommodation, it has been allowed to fall into dereliction.



The Irish Aesthete is generously supported by

School Daze


After Monday’s examination of Lisnavagh, County Carlow, here outside one of the entrance gates to the estate is a former school, thought to date from the late 1840s and perhaps designed, like so much else here, by Daniel Robertson. The building is certainly in the same Tudor-Gothic manner, with an abundance of hood mouldings over the windows and octagonal chimney stacks at either end of the main block which is centred on a two-storey gable. A work of considerable charm. 

The Irish Aesthete is generously supported by

Decent Lodgings



The former gate lodge at Ballyhaise, County Cavan (for the main house, see Mixing the Orders « The Irish Aesthete). Thought to have been designed by William Farrell and to date from c.1840, the single-storey building stands opposite the main gates and directly above the river Annalee. It is of five bays, the three central ones being recessed behind a charming wrought-iron trellis screen. Formerly a gift shop, the lodge is currently being restored to serve as a community space and coffee shop. 



The Irish Aesthete is generously supported by

Pathetic Residue




A gate lodge, almost all that remains of Ballywilliam, a former estate in County Limerick owned by the Maunsell family from the mid-18th century onwards. The main house here has long gone but this pathetic residue serves as a memory of what was once here. In his guide to the lodges of Munster, J.A.K. Dean ascribes the building’s design to Charles Frederick Anderson, and suggests a date after 1824 when Ballywilliam was inherited by George Meares Maunsell. A wonderful example of neo-classical design, the building has a pedimented breakfront supported by Doric columns, all in crisp cut limestone. Flanked by a curtain wall, pedimented projections extend the single-storey lodge to accommodate three rooms, that in the centre having a brick-vaulted ceiling, the floor below now covered in detritus.




The Irish Aesthete is generously supported by

The Same but Different



Following last Monday’s post about Johnstown Castle, County Wexford (see This Magnificent Building « The Irish Aesthete), herewith two of the five entrances to the estate. That above, which is believed to date from the early 19th century, perhaps erected soon after the property was returned to the ownership of the Grogan family, consists of a pair of cement-rendered, two-storey polygonal lodges flanking gateposts. An old photograph shows that the entire structure was once more elaborate in style, the lodges having Perpendicular Gothic windows on the ground floor and oculi above, and the space between them filled by a castellated arch. It would have borne similarity with another of the entrances, seen below, for which signed drawings by Martin Day, dated 1846, survive. This one takes the form of a miniature castle, constructed of rubble stone and cut granite for dressings, with a three-storey, battlemented tower incorporating a first-floor Tudoresque Oriel window, standing to one side of the castellated gate. 



The Irish Aesthete is generously supported by

Simple but Effective



The Mucklagh Gate formerly providing access to the Charleville Forest estate (see: The Consequence of Extravagance « The Irish Aesthete). Although the date 1860 is inscribed on a lintel, it is possible that this castellated building was designed at the start of the 19th century by Francis Johnston when he was working on the main castle. The rubble stone entrance, simple but effective, comprises a battlemented carriage gateway flanked by round towers, with pedestrian access via one of the latter.



The Irish Aesthete is generously supported by

Upon Entry



After Monday’s post about the main house at Woodbrook, County Laois, here are the the south gate lodge and gate screen into the estate. The lodge itself is a curious structure which may, or may not, have been designed by James Shiel at the same time as he was coming up with proposals for the house. The facade is dominated by an substantial ashlar pediment with window beneath, the latter flanked by deep recesses, one of which has a door into the building. So generous are the recesses that the pediment has to be supported by a pair of slender iron columns. The gate screen itself, of limestone ashlar and wrought iron, is more standardised with its piers, quadrant walls and arched niches in the outer sections. Here also is an old milestone advising that Dublin lies 47 miles distant.



The Irish Aesthete is generously supported by

Suitably Splendid



The former main entrance to the demesne of Dunsany Castle, County Meath is thought to date from the 1830s and to have been designed by James Shiel, an architect who specialises in castellating any building that stayed still long enough to be garnished with crenelations and battlements. In this instance, a rubble-faced lodge in the form of a small square keep, two storey to the front and three storey to the rear, rises to one side of the buttressed and Tudor-arched carriage gatescreen which is of crisp ashlar. Both here and in the adjacent pedestrian entrance, the decorative ironwork survives, giving the ensemble a suitably splendid appearance.



The Irish Aesthete is generously supported by

Kenure Park



After Monday’s post about the melancholy fate of Kenure Park, County Dublin, here are the other remains of the estate: two gate lodges. The first of these, close to the centre of Rush town and erected around the mid-19th century, stands inside curved quadrant walls of wrought iron concluding in granite piers with vermiculated bands and concluding in spherical finials, this work. believed to date from c1740. The lodge itself, of single storey and three bays with a pedimented central breakfront, appears to be currently unused and suffers from having the render stripped from its exterior. The second lodge, which lies to the north of the now-demolished house, is again of single storey and three bays with a central pedimented breakfront. Thought to date from c.1830, the building retains its render which features boldly vermiculated quoins. In this case, however, the gate piers are in a much poorer state of repair.

The Irish Aesthete is generously supported by