East Gate Lodge

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Single-storey with basement Classical style gate lodge of c.1827, formerly serving Donaghmore House (now St Joseph’s Convent School), but now derelict. The building is set on the west side of Castlecaulfield Road, on the southern outskirts of Donaghmore, but prior to road realignment of the late 1800s, was originally located on the opposite side of the road from the drive it served.

The front façade faces north-north-west, for ease of description this is referred to as north; orientations of all other facades are similarly ‘corrected’.

The building is rectangular and is Classically detailed in a simple and austere manner.The walls are finished in ashlar stone and the roof (which was hipped) has collapsed, as has the once centrally located chimneystack. The front elevation is symmetrical and consists of a central flat-arched doorway with panelled door, flanked by squarish flat-arched window openings, which have lost their original frames, but retain their cut stone sills. Over the openings is is a largely undecorated entablature, which is supported by four rather squat three-quarter attached columns, with Ionic capitals; the colums to the outside square, the inner ones round.

The east and west facades each have a single window opening, as front. Th rear elevation could not be seen due to thick vegetation, but it is believed that there is a doorway to the lower (basement) level of this facade.

Extending to east and west of the lodge are quadrant walls with decoative (and possibly later) iron railings on a low cut stone wall, terminating in v-joint rusticated pillars with concave pyramidal caps. There are octagonal stone buffers next to the pillars.

Historical information

A building of the same location and plan as the present is shown on this site on the OS map of 1834 and marked ‘gate lodge’ on the revised map of 1857. In the valuation of February 1835 this is recorded as a relatively newly-built, slate-roofed, ‘porter’s lodge’ occupied by a Robert Graham and measuring 24ft x 14 x 17. At this date the lodge served an old, large, two-storey thatched house to the north-west, on the opposite side of the road, then occupied by a local brewer, Alexander MacKenzie. This house and its attendant outbuildings are shown on an estate map of 1824 map along with the quadrant walls at the head of the drive, but the lodge is not. It is believed to be shown on a map of 1830, (although the existence of this map has not been confirmed – it is not held by PRONI), so we may tentatively assume that it is of the later 1820s. The identity of the architect is not known.

Alexander McKenzie died sometime between late 1844 and 1846 and the whole property passed to Jane Lyle [probably Jane MacKenzie Lyle, Alexander’s daughter]. The present classical house may have been built just before this date, in or around 1842-43, as the name ‘Donaghmore House’ starts to appear in leases involving MacKenzie from that date, and a sundial still on site is dated 1842. The house was certainly standing by 1857, as it appears on the revised OS map of that year.

The gate lodge itself (in common with many estate-related dwellings) is not recorded in detail in the mid to later 19th century valuations, re-appearing only in 1891 when Charles Fitzsimmons is listed as the tenant, followed by Robert Maglone [or McGlone] in 1895, John Comac in 1916, and William Smith in 1921. At some point in the late 19th century, following the realignment of the Castlecaulfield road, the lodge itself became fully incorporated within the grounds of the main house.

Donaghmore House itself passed to Alexander MacKenzie Lyle [?Jane’s son] in c.1860. The Lyle family remained there until c.1913. After lying vacant for a few years the house was sold in 1917 to John Laverty, a local horse-dealer, who is said to have bought it on the strength of a large order of horses from the Greek government. This deal fell through, apparently, and Laverty sold the property in 1920 the local RC Canon, Joseph O’Neill, from whom it was purchased by the Order of the Sisters of the Cross, who opened the building as a boarding school in 1922. The gate lodge appears to have continued to be occupied after this date, however, and is noted as the home of a James Johnston in 1950. It was probably abandoned c.1965 after the building of a new lodge, the neighbouring bungalow.

Additional notes on Donaghmore House
Donaghmore House, now St. Joseph’s Convent School, is situated on or close to the site a rectory said to have been built in 1683 by the later the Governor of Derry, Rev. George Walker, although datestones of 1693 and 1694 were uncovered during work carried out in 1980. This rectory is believed to have been damaged in the Williamite Wars and replaced with a new house c.1707 by George’s son, John Walker. This second dwelling (which is depitcted in naive fashion on an estate map of 1715), is described by Alistair Rowan as ‘a tiny four-bay, two-storey ashlar house’ remains in place today behind the later house. At some point in the later 1700s, (possibly after it was acquired by Alexander MacKenzie c.1796), the old Walker residence was enlarged with the addition of a new front block, the two-storey thatched house noted above, which is shown on the 1824 map as a relatively large gabled building with a seemingly asymmetric five openings-wide frontage, and recorded in the 1835 valuation as measuring 58ft x 27 x 14½. Local historian, Ryan Hughes, states that this block was incorporated within the present classical mansion, but this seems unlikely. The authorship of the mansion itself is unknown, but stylistic similarities with the gate lodge suggest both may have been the work of the same person. The quadrangle of school buildings to the rear of the house were commenced in the 1920s, with the largely brick three-storey wings (which contained the chapel, dining room and dormitories) completed in 1935 to designs by W.J. Gregory. The other buildings to the north appear to be of c.1965.

References- Primary sources
1 PRONI D1865 Coloured map of lands, Donaghmore, Co. Tyrone, belonging to John Walker, surveyed by Thomas Roe, 1 November 1715
2 PRONI T877/294 Marriage settlement- Andrew Lyle, jun. Armagh, Jane MacKenzie, Donaghmore, Co. Tyrone, 3 July 1815
3 PRONI Survey of the property of Alexander MacKenzie on the estate of Major Robert Blackall, in Mullygruen, parish of Donaghmore, Co. Tyrone, 1824
4 PRONI VAL1A/6/46 OS map, Co. Tyrone sheet 46, with valuation
references, 1834(-c.38)
5 PRONI VAL/1B/612A-B First valuation, Donaghmore parish, 1835
6 PRONI D556/457 Assignment of mortgage held in trust relating to tenements on West side of Hercules Street & North side of Berry Street, Belfast - Blackwood McLaughlin's tenement from James King of Roughan House, Co. Tyrone to Alexander MacKenzie of Donaghmore House, Co. Tyrone, 10 April 1843 [This is the first mention that has come to light of the name ‘Donaghmore House’, suggesting the present building had appeared by that date.]
7 ‘Slaters Commercial Directory of Ireland’ (London, 1846)
8 PRONI VAL2A/6/46A OS map, Co. Tyrone sheet 46, with valuation references, 1857(c.60)
9 PRONI VAL/2B/612B Second valuation, Donaghmore parish, c.1859
10 PRONI VAL12B/38/15A Annual valuation revision book, Donaghmore ED, 1860-63
11 PRONI VAL12B/38/15B Annual valuation revision book, Donaghmore ED, 1864-79
12 PRONI VAL12B/38/15C Annual valuation revision book, Donaghmore ED, 1880-81
13 PRONI VAL12B/38/15D Annual valuation revision book, Donaghmore ED, 1882-95
14 PRONI VAL12B/38/15E Annual valuation revision book, Donaghmore ED, 1895-1911
15 PRONI OS6/6/46/3 OS map, Co Tyrone sheet 46, 1905
16 PRONI VAL12B/38/15F Annual valuation revision book, Donaghmore ED, 1912-29
17 PRONI VAL3B/7/7 First General Revaluation of Northern Ireland, Donaghmore ED, 1935
18 PRONI VAL3C/7/11 First General Revaluation of Northern Ireland, Donaghmore ED, 1936-57
19 NIEA OS map, Co Tyrone sheet XLVI 14 [46-14], 1938
20 PRONI VAL4B/6/16 Second General Revaluation of Northern Ireland, Donaghmore ED, 1957-72

Secondary sources
1 ‘Domnach Mor – An outline of parish history’ (?Dungannon, 1969)
2 Sister Mary Mercedes FC, “Refelections on the Past- From Little Acorns…” [The publication to which this article belongs is not known. A copy is attached to the original First Survey notes in NIEA.]
3 Oram, RW and Rankin, PJ, ‘Historic buildings…Cookstown and Dungannon’ (Belfast, 1971), p.50
4 Rowan, Alistair, ‘North West Ulster’ (London, 1979), p.237
5 Dean, JAK, ‘The Gate Lodges of Ulster- a Gazetteer’ (Belfast, 1994), p.146
6 http://www.armagharchdiocese.org/cardinal/homilies/38-2007/478-10-oct-farewell-mass-sisters-of-the-cross-donaghmore, (Text of a farewell address by Cardinal Brady to the Sisters of the Cross, October 2007)
7 Information supplied by Mr Ryan Hughes, June 2009

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

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

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Z. Rarity
X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Though gate lodges are still relatively common throughout the countryside, early 19th century versions, such as this, are relatively scarce. This particular example also has the rare distinction (in a lodge of any era) of containing a ‘basement’ level, and is also distinguished by its fine cut-stone classical frontage complete with memorably squat Ionic pilasters and substantial entablature. One might expect a building such as this to have been associated with a large classical mansion, but in fact was built for a 2-storey thatched dwelling of more modest dimensions. Unfortunately, the site of both the lodge and the c.1840s classical mansion it went on to serve have been compromised somewhat in recent years. However both buildings have survived in much of their original form and together form a pair of local importance.