Rossmore Gates & Lodge

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

The main estate access to Lissan House comprising a pair of cut-sandstone piers (now without gates) flanked by lower screen walls of rubble stonework. The associated lodge is a little way into the demesne.

GATES:

The piers are of oblong plan, formed of a rectangle with curved recessed corners, thus leaving the front and back and two end faces as flat pilaster strips. The tops are of very shallow weathered form with a fine moulded cornice but now much damaged with associated single-storey three-bay building of rendered stonework and a slated roof.

GATE LODGE:

The main entrance faces east. The east elevation is symmetrical with one window to each side of a central doorway.
Roofing is of Bangor blue slates in regular courses with overhanging eaves on projecting rafters. There are two central chimneys diagonally placed on a rendered base, all of smooth render, with a moulded cornice still remaining on one of the chimneys.
Walling is of harled rubble stonework. Window openings are rectangular, with timber frames, but are now missing glazing bars. The entrance is also rectangular, containing a timber boarded door.

The south gable has plain timber barge boards oversailing on projecting purlins with shaped ends. It contains one rectangular window, now lacking glazing.

The other elevations are of similarly plain character and appearance, with a small rectangular extension projecting from the rear elevation.

SETTING:

The gates stand on the main driveway to Lissan House with the lodge at right angles to and set back from it, in a grassed and overgrown plot. There is a ruinous single-storey outbuilding standing to the rear of the lodge, and a stone boundary wall to the front. The wall is connected to the stone gate piers forming the main gateway to Lissan House.

Historical information

The precise date of the gateway and lodge is not known but it appears on the OS map of 1833 and may be presumed to date from around 1830. The lodge reportedly had small oriel bays added to it sometime later. It has lain empty for many years.

References - Primary Sources
1. OS Map of 1833.

Secondary Sources
1. J.A.K. Dean, The Gate Lodges of Ulster: A Gazetteer (UAHS, Belfast, 1994), p 145.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

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

Criteria for listing: historic interest

V. Authorship
X. Local Interest

Evaluation

This is an early 19th century gateway and lodge of modest dimensions, of generally plain appearance. The gate piers and screen walls enjoy an original setting at the main entrance to the Lissan House demesne, and are of considerable local interest not just as an example of the type, but also due to the association with an important demesne, forming part of an interesting and valuable group of buildings within it. The associated lodge is in picturesque 'cottage style' with its diagonally placed chimneys and other details.

The lodge is in a dilapidated condition and has lost a number of original features as a result of its dereliction, most notably its windows some of which were reportedly of oriel type, and although the basic structure and form still survives, it does not merit listing itself.