Gate Lodge

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A two-bay single-storey gate lodge with undercroft, built c.1880 and located at the entrance to Glenganagh (HB23/01/001A), off the Bangor Road. The lodge is square-on-plan with a small kitchen extension to west.

Hipped natural Tullycavy slate roof with leaded hips and central chimneystack with sandstone coping. Cast-iron gutters and downpipes on overhanging sandstone eaves over corbel blocks. Walling is painted roughcast with diagonal buttresses to principal corners having ashlar sandstone coping rising to eaves level. Windows are 3/6 replacement timber sliding sashes with stone sills except where stated.

Principal elevation faces south and has three openings including a glazed and timber entrance door accessed by a step and framed with a sandstone Doric portico supported on pedestals with plain entablature.

West elevation is abutted by the kitchen extension (of no interest) and has a single window to exposed right section.

Rear (north) elevation is double-height having a garage door with pedestrian door to left to ground floor and two timber framed windows lighting accommodation above.

East elevation has a single timber casement oriel to right side and has a timber access door to undercroft.

The gatescreen is located directly to south of the lodge. It comprises a vehicular entrance with square plan sandstone ashlar piers having plinth, cornice and ball finial supporting a pair of early twentieth-century steel vehicular gates. To right hand side is a matching pedestrian gate supported at right by a smaller pier with simple shallow pyramid cap. The flanking walls (curved on plan) are uncoursed squared rock-faced sandstone with dressed segmental sandstone coping.

Setting
The lodge is set at the entrance to Glenganagh (HB23/01/001A), at the south end of extensive grounds comprising woodlands and gardens, and opening at west onto Ballyholme beach. The entrance is also marked by a gatescreen.

Roof: Natural slate
Walling: Roughcast
Windows: Timber
RWG: Cast iron

Historical information

There is a gate house present on the first edition OS map of 1833, at the top of a short drive leading to Glenganagh. However, this building has gone by the second edition (1858), the line of the road passing Glenganagh has changed and a ‘gate lodge’ on the site of the present building is shown further to the south and sited on the line of the new road. This lodge is not referred to in Griffith’s Valuation (1856-64).

It seems, however, that this lodge was itself replaced by the current building in around 1882, when a gate lodge is inserted into the description of Glenganagh house. There is no separate valuation for the lodge, but its rebuilding may well have formed part of a series of improvements that Samuel Kingan made to the property leading to a large rise in the value of the property in the early 1880s. Dean and Brett state that the architect was James Hanna (Dean, p.77, Brett, p.103).

The gate screen was probably designed at the same time as the gate lodge in around 1882, as part of improvements carried out to the estate by Samuel Kingan.

References:

Primary Sources

1.PRONI OS/6/3/2/1 – First Edition OS Map 1833
2.PRONI OS/6/3/2/2 – Second Edition OS map 1858
3.PRONI OS/6/3/2/3 – Third Edition OS Map 1901
4.PRONI OS/6/3/2/4 – Fourth Edition OS Map 1919-26
5.PRONI OS/6/3/2/5 – Fifth Edition OS Map 1939
6.PRONI VAL/2/B/3/2 – Griffith’s Valuation Map (1856-64)
7.PRONI VAL/2/B/3/1C – Griffith’s Valuation (1856-64)
8.PRONI VAL/12/B/23/7A-K – Annual Revisions (1866-99)
9.PRONI VAL/12/B/23/8A-C – Annual Revisions (1894-1923)

Secondary Sources

1.Brett, C.E.B. “Buildings of North County Down” Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 2002
2.Dean, J. A. K. “The Gate Lodges of Ulster: A Gazetteer.” Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1994.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
J. Setting
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

V. Authorship
X. Local Interest

Evaluation

A two-bay single-storey gate lodge with under croft, located at the entrance to Glenganagh (HB23/01/001A). The lodge dates from the late nineteenth century and formed part of an extensive scheme of improvements to the house, executed by the architect James Hanna. The plain design is enlivened by fine detailing. The gate screen was probably designed at the same time as the lodge c.1882, as part of improvements carried out to the estate by Samuel Kingan. The lodge and screen form an important part of the Glenganagh estate group.

General comments

Please note this record has been renumbered it has been taken from both HB23/01/002 & HB23/01/003