Set into a wall to the immediate west of the main entrance into Mearescourt, County Westmeath is this pedestrian gateway. It appears to be a survivor from the main house at the end of the drive: this was developed over the 17th and 18th century around an earlier tower house and the building’s present front dates from c.1760. Probably when this work was completed and a classic Paladian doorcase installed, the earlier version was removed. However, rather than simply dispose of it, the owners recycled the stone here. So this is a late-Baroque ashlar limestone doorcase with moulded architraves, the cornice supported by carved brackets, a rare survivor from the period although in need of some attention to ensure its future.
Tag Archives: Gate Lodge
A Tale of Two Lodges
Killua, County Westmeath was originally built in c.1780 as a regular three-storey classical house, before being transformed into a gothic castle fifty years later to the designs of James Pain. Two of its lodges represent these different periods and styles. That above is the Temple Lodge with its Ionic portico and high gabled pediment. Further along the former estate walls stands the Castle Gate Lodge, presumably also designed by Pain and intended to prepare visitors for what lay ahead since it incorporates many of the features found in the main house. The other difference between the two is that whereas the older lodge is still occupied and in good condition, the more recent one has fallen into disrepair.
Firmly Lodged
The gate lodge on the south-west corner of St Stephen’s Green, Dublin. This was designed c.1880 by James Franklin Fuller, the Kerry-born architect much employed by Sir Arthur Guinness, raised around this time to the peerage as Baron Ardilaun: the latter paid for the 22-acre park to be landscaped and opened to the public (hitherto access was only available to keyholders). The lodge is an endearing hodge-podge of gables, dormer windows, mullions and bays constructed in brick, sandstone and timber (including ornamental bargeboards on the gables) and terracotta fish-tail tiles. The total cost was £2,256, much higher than was usually expended on such buildings.
That Old Kitchen Stove
‘That old kitchen stove, how my memory clings,
As my thoughts turn back to the savory things
That emerged from its oven, its pots and kettles
When my mother was matron of those relishing victuals.
With what a rattle and clatter and din,
The table was loaded with the brightest of tin.
The fire was given a punch and a poke,
And the quaint stone chimney, how it would smoke!
The embers on the hearth would sparkle and glow
As if for the occasion they were anxious to go
Enthused, as it were, by my mother’s desire,
For she trusted completely on that old stove fire.’
From That Old Kitchen Stove by David Harold Judd (1901). Pictures of the former gate lodge at Magheramenagh Castle, County Fermanagh.
Another Gratuitous Loss
The castellated entrance into the former Camlin estate, County Donegal. The land here was bought c.1718 from William ‘Speaker’ Conolly by William Tredennick, who had moved to Ireland from Cornwall. The drive led to a large Tudor-Gothic house which, like the entrance was designed around 1838 by John Benjamin Keane and featured a plethora of battlements and turrets draped over what was essentially a symmetrical, classical residence. The Tredennicks remained here for more than two centuries, the last of them leaving the place in 1929. Some twenty years later the main house was blown up by the Electricity Supply Board, then engaged in the Erne Hydro-Electric Scheme. It was thought Camlin would be submerged by the new lake but in fact the water’s edge never came close to the site of the building so its destruction was entirely gratuitous. The entrance is all that now remains to indicate the lost house’s appearance.
Made Over
Photographed in the midst of a downpour, the Red Lodge at Cloverhill, County Cavan. This was originally a gate lodge probably designed by Francis Johnston (who was responsible c.1799 for the now-ruinous main house elsewhere on the estate). However towards the end of the 19th century the building was enlarged to become a farm manager’s residence. At the same time it was heavily embellished in the arts and crafts style; the architect is not known. What survives of Johnston’s work is the canted side with arched windows, but otherwise the lodge has been given a thorough make-over in which the dominant feature are the timber Oriel windows and corresponding entrance porch on the ground floor.
A Tantalising Hint
A former gate lodge to Elm Park, otherwise known as Clarina Park, County Limerick. Designed by brothers James and George Pain, the house here was built 1833-36 for Eyre Massey, third Baron Clarina following the latter’s marriage to 18-year old heiress Susan Barton (her father was the Hiberno-French wine baron Hugh Barton). Built at the cost of £50,000 with an abundance of towers and castellations, Elm Park was demolished in the early 1960s. Today this lodge, the carriageway since enclosed to increase accommodation, is one of the few extant buildings to give a tantalising hint of the lost house’s appearance.
Seasonal Adjustments
The difference a few months can make: the north lodge at Ardbraccan, County Meath in high summer (above) and now (below).
A Castle in Miniature
The entrance to Annesbrook, County Meath. The design of the main house with its towering Ionic portico and gothick dining chamber in the north wing is sometimes attributed to Francis Johnston (see When Royalty Comes to Call, October 12th 2015). Perhaps he was also responsible for this building which might also have been constructed in anticipation of a visit by George IV in 1821. With the character of a miniature castle, it holds just two rooms, a kitchen/living area on one side of the arch and a sleeping chamber on the other.
Into the Woods
Buried in the midst of trees, the remains of a neo-classical gate lodge in County Fermanagh. Likely dating from the early 19th century, its entrance at the top of a short flight of steps features a fine Tuscan portico flanked by windows each set within a shallow arched niche. Although almost beyond redemption (the rear wall has bulged out and looks on the verge of collapse), the building’s quality of stonework for key features, together with an evident consideration of the overall design, is testament to the care once paid even to such modest dwellings.
