North Gate

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

An attached early-seventeenth-century Elizabethan town wall gate, erected between 1608-1620, dated 1608, restored and dated 1911. Gateways consist of round-headed vehicular entrance arch and lower pedestrian arch to north side. Castellated parapet with central shields to either end (dated to east, heraldry to west), ashlar sandstone walling and dressed soffits, moulded archivolt springing from torus-moulded imposts to both arched (non-moulded archivolt to pedestrian arch). One granite carriage bollard to each side. It is situated parallel to Albert Road with pedestrian arch set to west elevation of wall.

Historical information

North Gate is the sole surviving visible town wall gate. Along with the town walls, it was erected between 1608-1620 and was dated at the time of its 1911 restoration to 1608. The pedestrian arch and castellation dates from the 1911 restoration.

James Boyle's OS Memoirs of 1840 note that ‘Carrickfergus [was] formerly entered by four gates...of these [only] the North Gate now remains’. This gate would have been ‘formerly protected by a ditch and enclosed by drawbridges’. Boyle mentions that the North Gate was previously known as Spittal Gate. According to Boyle in 1840, the North Gate was in a ‘good condition’, it consisted "of a circular arched gateway 13ft high and 11ft wide, surmounted by a battlemented summit. Its total height is 19 and a half feet…".
Somewhat in contradiction to the above, Emerson in 1848 writes that the "remains of the North Gate are still standing, but in bad repair".

In 1886 Alexander Mitchell and William Stewart made an application to Carrick Grand Jury to remove the arch (North Gate). They argued that it was a public obstruction and ‘no architectural beauty, & impeded public traffic in a thoroughly inexcusable manner’. It was also argued that the arch lead to increased traffic from the railway station as it was too narrow. (Mc Kinney,
1905).

References

Primary Sources:
1. PRONI OS/6/1/52/1 - First Edition OS Map (1832)
2. PRONI OS/6/1/52/2 - Second Edition OS Map (1857)
3. PRONI OS/6/1/52/3 - Third Edition OS Map (1901-2)

Secondary Sources:
1. Boyle, J. OS Memoirs-Carrickfergus, Vol 37, pg 13.
2. Emerson, George Hill. An Historical Sketch of Carrickfergus. London,
Montgomery, 1848.
3. McKinney, William. History of Carrickfergus 1905. Carnmoney, 1905.
4. McConnell, Charles. Carrickfergus: A stroll through time. Carrickfergus
Publications, 1994.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

A seventeenth-century Elizabethan gate much restored and altered in the early-twentieth century and of considerable importance as the only visible surviving gate of a former substantial town wall circuit. The structure is in State Care