KILBRONEY GATE LODGE

The Department's description

Historical information

This dwelling was built as the gate lodge for Kilbroney House. It is shown (and identified as ‘Gate Lodge’) for the first time on the OS map of 1860. Its appearance suggests it is contemporary with the main house. The latter is likely to have been built by then owner, Robert Martin, in the early to mid-1840s, and is thought to have been designed by the respected Newry architect Thomas Duff. If so, the lodge is almost certainly of similar date and as such may also be the work of Duff.

The plan of the building is shown as L-shaped on the 1860, suggesting that the two-storey rear projection did not exist at this time; however, it is entirely sympathetic with the rest of the structure and there appears to be no indication from the valuations that it was added at any point. The single-storey rear extension seems to be of the mid-20th century.

The building is recorded in the second valuation of 1861, but not listed individually until 1892, when John Coffey is recorded as the occupant. He was succeeded in 1895 by John Camfield, followed in 1898 by Peter McCumiskey, who in the 1901, census is recorded as a 30yr-old ‘general labourer’ living here with his wife, Rose, and three young daughters, with the building itself noted as a ‘2nd class’ dwelling with only two rooms ‘in use’ at that time. Four rooms are noted as being ‘in use’ in the 1911 census.

[?John] Farrell is noted as the householder in 1914, John Murphy in 1916, Josh McClelland in 1920, John Galvin in c.1923 and Patrick Mulholland in 1925.

The lodge appears to have remained in the same ownership as Kilbroney House until 1978, when it was offered for sale as an individual property.

[For the history of Kilbroney House, please see HB16/06/011]

References - Primary sources
1 OS map, Co. Down sheet 54, 1860
2 PRONI VAL2B/3/61B (1861)
3 PRONI VAL12B/19/21A-F (1865-1929)
4 Census of Ireland, 1901, 1911 [http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie, accessed 2020.06.15]
5 OS map, Co. Down sheet 54, 1902
6 ‘Belfast Telegraph’, 12 June 1973, p.18
7 ‘Belfast Telegraph’, 17 January 1978, p.19
8 ‘Belfast Telegraph’, 23 October 1979, p.19
9 ‘Belfast Telegraph’, 25 March 1980, p.27

Secondary sources
10 Dean, J.A.K., ‘The gate lodges of Ulster - a gazetteer’, (Belfast, UAHS, 1994), p.80