Garden turret at Red Hall

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A small circular turret with conical roof, with pointed Gothic-arched openings to doorway and small window to each side. Built of basalt rubble with a distinct batter to the base. A blank stone panel projects above the doorway. Roof of conical form with swept eaves carried on projecting shaped rafters; slated roof in alternating bands of regular courses and fish-scale pattern, in derelict condition, most slates missing and woodwork rotted to entrance front. Windows missing frames and glazing.
Setting: the turret stands in the grounds of Red Hall, at the end of a driveway from the south where it joins the main entrance driveway from the east. Adjacent to the turret is a pair of white limestone gate piers no longer functioning with gates. The
setting is secluded, surrounded by mature trees.

Historical information

Built in connection with Red Hall. Does not appear on any OS maps or in engraved view of Red Hall in 1869 which shows the adjacent piers. Probably built by John McAuley who bought the estate in 1869 and probably dating from early to mid-1870s. It may have been a gate-keeper’s lodge built in association with an internal gateway on the estate.

It lies within the area of a scheduled monument, no. ANT47:4.

References - Secondary Sources

1. M.C. Lyons, Illustrated Encumbered Estates, Ireland 1850-1905, (Ballynakella Press, Whitegate, County Clare, Ireland, 1993), p 238 (engraved view dating from 1869 which shows adjacent piers but not garden turret).

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
J. Setting

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest

Evaluation

This is a turret or shelter of High Victorian Gothic design which provides an interesting and unusual element in the estate, and which together with the Georgian stone piers adjacent forms a picturesque group.