Main Lodge,

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A single-storey two-bay gate lodge, built c.1835, extended c.1970, located at the north entrance to Baronscourt Demesne (HB10/04/001A-R). The lodge is L-shaped on plan, aligned east-west, extended to west, and with further flat-roofed extension to rear re-entrant angle.

Pitched fibre cement slate roof over exposed rafter tails, terracotta ridge tiles, triple lozenge-stack (rebuilt) on original brick plinth. Timber bargeboards to gables. Rainwater goods are uPVC. Walling is roughcast rendered over smooth rendered plinth. Windows are bi-partite side-hung uPVC casements in recessed smooth rendered reveals; slightly projecting painted masonry sills.

Principal elevation faces north and consists of full-height gabled porch with original canted bay to left and extension to right. Porch is brick and has timber sheeted door with bronze knob and stone step surmounted by a small square window with label mould over. Canted bay has a window to each cheek. Extension is similarly detailed with gabled right end and matching square window with label mould, but is of little interest.

Left gable has a window to each floor, each formed in painted brick and with label mould. It is abutted by a gate screen (HB10/04/001L).

Rear elevation is abutted by return to right. It has a projecting bay window to gable and a window to right cheek. Left cheek and remainder of elevation completely abutted by flat-roofed extension.

Right gable (extension) is blank.

The lodge is set some distance from the public road and is accessed by a tarmac drive through maturely planted woodland. There is an expansive lawn to front (north) and a further lawn to rear. The gate screen is located to east, beyond which a disused secondary estate road leads though estate plantation towards Lough Catherine. The mansion (HB10/04/001A) is located some distance to the south.

Roof: Fibre cement slate
Walling: Roughcast
Windows: uPVC casements
RWG: uPVC

Historical information

A ‘Gate Lodge’ is first recorded on the 1854 OS map as a rectangular building with projection to south. The building is recorded as ‘Lodge’ on the 1907 map.

Valuations include the gatelodge with records for the mansion of Baronscourt (HB 10/04/001A). The Townland Valuation (1828-40) records the ‘House, offices, gate house etc’, valued at £150. In Griffith’s Valuation (1856-64) the ‘Castle, offices, steward and game-keeper’s houses and gate lodges’ are valued at £220. By the second revision in 1895, and in subsequent revisions, there is a separate listing for the gate lodge. It is leased by Barbara Evans from the Duke of Abercorn and valued at £4.

Dean refers to the lodge as the Newtownstewart gate (p 135), dating it to c.1835 and attributing it to P F Robinson, as an adaptation of Design No 4 in the pattern book ‘Designs for Lodges & Park Entrances’ (1833). It is likely that this building was started soon after completion of Rock Cottage (HB 10/04/001H).

The building has since been extended c.1970. According to Dean the building was originally faced with rustic rubble stone with brick dressings which were rendered over when the lodge was extended and the decorative bargeboards also lost (p 135).

References:

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/6/17/1 -First Edition OS Map (1833)
2. PRONI OS/6/6/17/2 -Second Edition OS Map (1854)
3. PRONI OS/6/6/17/3 Third Edition OS Map (1907)
4. PRONI VAL/1B/637A – Townland Valuation Map (1828-40)
5. PRONI VAL/2/A/6/17A – Griffith’s Valuation Map (1856-64)
6. PRONI VAL/2/B/6/17 – Griffith’s Valuation (1856-1925)
7. PRONI VAL/12/B/42/7A-F – Annual Revision Records (1860-1925)

Secondary Sources

1. Bence-Jones, M. “A Guide to Irish Country Houses.” Second Revised Edition. London: Constable and Robinson, 1990.
2. Day, A. and P. McWilliams, eds. “OS Memoirs of Ireland, Parishes of County Tyrone I, 1821, 1823, 1833-36, Vol. 5.” Belfast: Institute of Irish Studies, 1990.
3. Dean, J. A. K. “The Gate Lodges of Ulster.” Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1994.
4. Lewis, S. “A Topographical Dictionary of Ireland, Vol. I.” London: S. Lewis & Co., 1837.
5. O’Brien, J. and D. Guinness. “Great Irish Houses and Castles.” London: George Weidenfield & Nicolson Ltd., 1992.
6. Rowan, A. “North West Ulster: Londonderry, Donegal, Fermanagh, and Tyrone.” Dublin: Penguin Books, 1979.
7. The Irish Architectural Archive Dublin. [Internet Source]. Available from: (Accessed 22/04/09)
8. Young, R.M. “Belfast and the Province of Ulster in the Twentieth Century.” Brighton” W. T. Pike, 1909

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

V. Authorship
X. Local Interest

Evaluation

The main gate lodge to Baronscourt is located at the northernmost entrance to the demesne, at some distance from the public road. It is a single storey dwelling, constructed c.1835 in a picturesque Tudorbethan style, thought to have been derived from a pattern book design. The original lodge has suffered inappropriate alteration and the original proportions have been obscured by twentieth-century extensions to side and rear; as a result the building has lost some of its character. The interior has also been modernised and the attached gate screen (HB10/04/001L) is in poor repair. Tthe lodge is, however, one of an extensive group of listed estate related structures within the historic demesne (HB10/04/001A-R), and its setting remains unspoiled.

General comments

Renumbered as part of a group-previously HB10/04/047