Lodge and gate screen to Drumnasole House,

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A single storey gate lodge of masonry construction and slated roofs, with a cast iron gatescreen adjacent. Main entrance front to lodge faces south; main entrance gateway faces east.

Main entrance front is 3-bay with one window to each side of a central projecting entrance porch. Roof of Bangor blue slates in regular courses; dark toned ridge tiles; shaped timber finials to gables; overhanging eaves with decorative timber barge boards; moulded cast iron gutters with PVC downpipes; two chimneys of black and white polychrome brickwork with stop-chamfered corners standing on a joint stack of black brickwork, stone dressed and joined at the top by a semi-circular arch; moulded sandstone string courses and sandstone blocking course; pots missing.
Walls of roughly coursed basalt rubble with rusticated sandstone quoins to extremities, and projecting sandstone plinth. A plain sandstone shield is set in the apex of the front porch gable.
Windows of main block are segmental arched timber sliding sashes, 2 over 2, with horns, set in sandstone block surrounds with keystone; painted projecting sandstone cills; window to left of porch has a later replacement lower sash of only one pane.
Front wall of porch contains a semi-circular arched opening with semi-circular arched timber window, sashed as previous. East side of porch contains a semi-circular headed niche with concave recess lined with smooth cement render, lined and blocked, with traces of paint remaining.
West side of porch contains main entrance which comprises a shouldered ledged timber door with diagonal tongued and grooved sheeting, set in chamfered and shouldered arched sandstone surround.

West gable: roof and walling as previous, including a plain sandstone shield in apex, but no plinth to base of wall. One window, segmental arched as previous. Extending to the left is the basalt rubble wall of the former rear yard now given a lean-to roof of corrugated asbestos; metal guttering in poor condition.

Rear elevation: portion of roof to right of central chimney stack is of Bangor blue slates in regular courses; portion of roof to left is of asbestos slates; PVC gutter, partly missing. Most of rear wall of lodge is obscured by a projecting rear return to the left, and the former yard to the right.
North elevation of rear return is of basalt rubble with later smooth cement render to the apex of the gable, and smooth render, trowelled to simulate stonework, used to raise the yard wall to the right. One door, modern flush timber with modern handle; two windows, modern rectangular timber fixed lights with top-hung vents; projecting painted concrete cills. Timber eaves board, with PVC rainwater goods. West wall of rear extension is similar to north, with steel guttering in poor condition; roof of corrugated asbestos.

East gable of lodge: similar to west gable with addition of a canted bay. Canted bay is of similar walling with a segmental arched window in each face; timber eaves board; PVC gutter and downpipe.

Extending to the right is a single storey rear return: basalt rubble with plain projecting plinth of white limestone blocks, rising to three plain pilaster strips with end parts of a plain projecting frieze remaining. One window, later modern timber three light, fixed, with one side-hung casement; cement dressings to widened opening; timber eaves board, with PVC gutter and downpipe returning to end wall of return; roof of return is of asbestos slates to the east side; corrugated asbestos to the north side.

GATESCREEN: The gatescreen comprises a set of four square cast iron piers with a central gateway, containing a pair of gates, flanked by double-curved screen railings to each side. Piers consist of stop-chamfered square hollow cast iron shafts with Gothic headed panels on each face, standing on cast iron bases, with openwork cast iron caps of ogee form surmounted by ornamented finials; caps have panels of anthemion ornament; piers contain scrolling motifs. Gates have vertical railings with foliated finials and floriated lower panels.
Screen railings are of similar design to gates; some finials missing from both railings and gates.
Extending to each side of the end piers are front boundary walls of basalt rubble with basalt rock copings.

SETTING: The group sands in a very rural location next to the main road with lodge set back slightly from the road within its own small grassed plot. Driveway surfaced with beach pebbles and crushed limestone. The garden of the lodge is closed off from the driveway by a new wire and wooden post fence, containing a new wooden post pedestrian gate of rustic design.
Ground to inland side of lodge and to rear rises steeply, contained by a low dry stone retaining wall.

Historical information

Built for the Turnly family as the gatelodge and entrance to Drumnasole House. The year of construction is not recorded, and it does not appear until the OS map of 1903, but it may be dated stylistically to c.1860.

References – Primary Sources
1. OS Map 1903, Co Antrim 25.

Secondary Sources
1. UAHS, Glens of Antrim, revised edition (Belfast, 1980), revision note for p 22 (item no. 27).
2. J.A.K. Dean, The Gate Lodges of Ulster (Belfast, 1994), p 10.
3. C.E.B. Brett, Buildings of County Antrim (UAHS, Belfast, 1996), p 225.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
H-. Alterations detracting from building
J. Setting
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest

Evaluation

This is a mid-Victorian gate lodge in an unusual style which, together with its associated gate screen, enjoys an unspoiled setting and provides an attractive and interesting feature on a scenic stretch of the Antrim Coast Road.