Entrance Screen,

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

An attached gate screen, erected c.1920, located at the Largybeg (north) entrance to Baronscourt Demesne (HB10/04/001A-R), and attached to the Newtownstewart Gate Lodge (HB10/04/001K).

The screen is of concrete and wrought-iron construction and consists of a central pair of square piers with corniced caps and urn finials supporting double decorative wrought-iron gates and flanked by pedestrian gates and two further wrought-iron screens at either side, all supported on smaller piers with ball-finials over a concrete plinth; there is a concrete screen wall to west end, and the lodge is to the east.

The screen is unused and is located some distance from the public road, accessed by a tarmac avenue. There is woodland to east and south, and an expanse of grass lawn to north of the lodge. The estate road within the gate screen is tarmac, and has grassed areas to either side, and when in use lead past Lough Catherine to the main house.

Material: Concrete and cast-iron

Historical information

The main gate screen beside the Newtownstewart gate lodge (HB 10/04/001K) is not shown on the OS maps until 1907 and so likely post-dates the lodge. The screen is described by Dean as ‘a rather incongruous range of classical pillars with ball finials to the outer ones and urns to the inner carriage pillars’, with ‘good cast ironwork between’ (p 135). It is thought that the pre-1907 screen was replaced c.1920 with the current screen.

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)

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

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

A relatively recent concrete and wrought-iron gate screen erected c.1920 and located at the north end of Baronscourt Demesne (HB10/04/001A-R). The screen is attached to a Gate Lodge (HB10/04/001K), and, although it retains its unspoiled setting and is generally well proportioned, close inspection reveals that the concrete and ironwork detailing is not of high quality.

General comments

Renumbered as part of a group-previously HB10/04/048