East gate lodge to Ballylough House

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

One and a half storey gate lodge to Ballylough House, whose slightly rustic picturesque appearance with overhanging roof may have been the result of a c.1840s-50s remodelling / heightening of a - possibly Classical style - dwelling of 1813.

SETTING Rural
setting at the eastern entrance to the Ballylough House demesne, on the west side of Castlecat Road, about 1.9km S of the centre of Bushmills.

GENERAL The building is basically rectangular in plan, but with a projecting gabled single-storey porch to front and two single-storey lean-tos to the rear. The main section has a gabled roof covered in slate with a series of curving timber brackets supporting the pronounced overhang, plain timber bargeboards and a central brick chimneystack; some missing slates to the W end of the N side of the roof and close to the chimney on the S side . The walls of the main section and larger (kitchen) lean-to are finished in painted roughcast, with the smaller - outside WC - lean-to in painted brick, and the porch finished in plain painted render. Both the porch and larger lean-to are slated, with a corrugated asbestos roof to the WC. CI RW goods.

The lodge appears to have been vacated c.2011 and is showing signs of disrepair.

FRONT ELEVATION Roughly N facing and symmetrical. Central gabled porch with fixed light window to gable and doorway flanked with sidelights on W side. Doorway has c.1970s timber and glazed door. Window to left and to right of porch on main façade, each with 1 over 2 timber sash frames.

E GABLE Centrally positioned window to each level, both with 6 over 3 timber sash frames.

W GABLE As east gable.

REAR (S) ELEVATION The kitchen lean-to is to left / centre and has a window with metal frame to it’s S-facing side, and a doorway with plain sheeted timber door to the E. The WC lean-to has a door as before to its S side. There is a small high-level ventilation(?) opening on the main façade between the lean-tos.

WALLS and GATE SCREEN The lodge is enclosed from the road by a relatively low roughcast-rendered wall with rough rubble coping. The walls curve into a gate screen which has round (vernacular-like) roughcast-covered piers with stone caps and wrought-iron gates with ‘spearhead’ decoration.

Historical information

The lintel of the original front entrance of this gate lodge, (now an inner doorway within the porch), is inscribed ‘1813’. The same doorway has a pair of Tuscan Style pilaster jambs, Classical details which are at odds with the present picturesque appearance of the building, and which could suggest that it was remodeled (and perhaps heightened) at some point – possibly in the 1840s or 1850s. Unfortunately, the documentary evidence relating to the lodge is lacking, the 1830s and 1850s valuation books containing none of the usual details such as dimensions etc., so it is difficult to deduce when any changes may have been carried out. The construction date of 1813 does appear to coincide with other works within the wider Ballylough demesne, however, as the main house itself is believed to have been remodeled and had its roof raised in 1815, whilst the western or ‘Drum’ gate lodge is thought to been constructed around this time also, all of this the work of Rev Alexander Traill (1755-1831), Archdeacon of Connor, who had acquired the property from Alexander Thomas Stewart in 1789.

The lodge is shown on the 1832 OS map, but only labeled as a ‘gate lodge’ on the revised map of 1857. The porch and the kitchen lean-to are shown on the OS map of 1904, whilst the WC lean-to appears to be present on that of 1922 (though it is difficult to be certain of this given the scale of the map). The porch does not appear on the 1972 map, though it is not depicted on more recent surveys, suggesting that this is simply an oversight.

Unfortunately, it is difficult to trace the occupants of the building through the 19th and early 20th century valuation books (as can be done for most properties during this period), as the building is not recorded individually but only as part of the wider Ballylough House estate. The lodge is said to have been occupied up until 2011.

Interestingly, although now in the townland of Ballylough More, the lodge was originally located within the townland of Cavan, the southwestern corner of the latter once stretching further into the Ballylough demesne. The boundary was altered at some point in the later 19th century, though the reason for this is not clear.

References – primary sources
1 OS map County Series, Antrim sheet 7 – 1832, 1857, 1904, 1922; IG sheet 7-13 – 1972
2 PRONI VAL12B/30/8A-D Annual valuation revision books, Bushmills ED – 1859-94
3 PRONI VAL12B/4/6A-C Annual valuation revision books, Bushmills ED – 1895-1923
4 PRONI VAL12B/4/20A Annual valuation revision book, Port Cammon Ed – 1923-30
5 PRONI VAL3C/1/15 First general revaluation of Northern Ireland, Port Cammon ED – 1936-57
6 PRONI VAL4B/1/25 Second general revaluation of Northern Ireland, Port Cammon ED – 1956-72

Secondary sources
7 Dean, J.A.K., ‘The gate lodges of Ulster – a gazetteer’, (UAHS, Belfast, 1994), p.2
8 Information supplied by owner - May 2024

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
D. Plan Form
H-. Alterations detracting from building
I. Quality and survival of Interior
J. Setting

Criteria for listing: historic interest

R. Age
Z. Rarity
S. Authenticity
X. Local Interest

Evaluation

One and a half-storey gate lodge at the eastern drive to Ballylough House, whose present somewhat rustic, picturesque appearance with overhanging roof appears to have been the result of a c.1840s-50s remodelling / heightening of a - possibly Classical style - dwelling of 1813. As such the building represents a rare example (in gate lodge terms) of a palimpsest, and despite some changes to the porch, remains largely intact. It is accompanied by a possibly mid to later 19th century gate screen which combines vernacular style rounded piers and decorative handcrafted wrought-iron gates, all much in sympathy with the lodge itself and equally well-preserved.