Gateway

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Red sandstone gateway, dated 1677, set within stretch of rubble stone wall, running on a north-south axis along the eastern boundary of Castle Gardens. All restored c.2007.

Seventeenth-century archway to west elevation only with substantially replaced red sandstone elevation to the east, dated 1991.

Squared and coursed red sandstone gateway with a three-centred arch c.2 metres deep. Pink lime mortar to stonework with roughly voussoired arch stones extending into the intrados of the deep arch. Moulded sandstone string course above arch with further platband above. The top of the gateway has a crenellated parapet with stepped embrasures, rounded merlons, finished with a decorative moulding and lead covering. Central merlon displays a carved date plaque ‘1677’.

The random rubble stone wall steps in halfway forming a ledge to the west elevation, while the parapet is constructed in hand-made red brick, crenellated and lead covered as per the gateway. The east elevation has several full-height rubble stone buttresses.

Walling Random rubble / Squared coursed red sandstone

Historical information

The gateway once formed part of the formal gardens surrounding Lisburn Castle and is the only surviving remnant of built heritage associated with the castle. The first castle, which had been built by Sir Fulke Conway and was nearing completion in 1622, was destroyed by fire in the 1641 rebellion and was attacked again in 1649. (Mackey, p.1-2, Ó Baoill)

The country then entered a phase of relative peace and by the early 1650s the castle was undergoing reconstruction. In the 1660s and 1670s work took place on the gardens including the building of the wall and gateway, which is dated 1677. John Darley, referred to as a mason or a carpenter, is said to have worked on the castle and grounds at this time and may be the architect of the walled garden. In 1664 he was paid £17 for work on the wall and one tower of the castle and it is noted by Mackey that, “prospering merchants competed with each other to build fine houses to the latest designs, one of whom took down the upper part of his recently built house so that the Quaker architect John Darley could re-erect it with ‘a projecting handsome architrave and cornice’”. (Loeber, p.6-7, 45; Dixon, Ó Baoill)

George Rawdon, who had married into the Conway family, was resident at the Castle in 1654. From 1656, he writes several letters to the Conways in England which describe the improvements he is carrying out to the gardens, including creating the walled garden, widening the terraces, infilling a fishpond, laying out paths and constructing a perron and gazebo. Excavation work carried out in 2003 uncovered remains of some of these features, including the perron and gazebo, that together constitute the remains of ‘a very important seventeenth century formal garden’. (Ó Baoill) The gateway was repaired in 1991 and again in 2007 along with the adjacent walling.

References:
Primary Sources
1. PRONI OS/6/1/68/1 – First Edition OS Map 1833
2. PRONI OS/6/1/68/2 – Second Edition OS map 1857
3. PRONI OS/6/1/68/3 – Third Edition OS Map c1900
4. PRONI OS/6/1/68/4 – Fourth Edition OS Map 1921
5. PRONI OS/6/1/68/5 – Fifth Edition OS Map 1939
6. PRONI VAL/12/E/40/1/ – Annual Revisions Town Plan (1877-c1898)
7. PRONI VAL/12/E/40/2/ – Annual Revisions Town Plan (1898-c1907)
8. PRONI VAL/12/E/40/4 – Annual Revisions Town Plan (1907-c1927)

Secondary Sources
1. Dixon, H ‘So Many Proofs? Aspects of the Legacy of Sir Richard Wallace in the fabric of Lisburn’ in Lisburn Historical Society Journal, Volume 4, December 1982 (available at www.lisburn.com)
2. Mackey, Brian “Lisburn, the Town and its People, 1873-1973” Belfast: Blackstaff Press, 2000
3. Ó Baoill, Ruairí ‘Excavations at Castle Gardens Lisburn’ in Lisburn Historical Society Journal, Volume 10, 2005-6 (available at www.lisburn.com)

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

Red sandstone gateway and rubble stone wall running on a north-south axis to the east of Castle Gardens. This recently restored gateway and defensive wall are all that remain of the seventeenth-century Lisburn Castle, the castle having been destroyed in a major fire in 1707. Now forming an attractive park feature, the gateway and walling constitute an important part of the early history of Lisburn while adding to the collection of monuments contained within Castle Gardens. This structure is protected as part of the Scheduled Monument ANT 068:002.