Survey Data
Reg No
12310001
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Artistic
Original Use
Gate lodge
Date
1867 - 1885
Coordinates
263564, 153574
Date Recorded
17/05/2004
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Detached two-bay single-storey part double-pile gate lodge, extant 1900, on an L-shaped plan; two-bay single-storey parallel block with single-bay (single-bay deep) single-storey return (east). Now disused. Pitched slate roof on a T-shaped plan off-centred on pitched (gabled) slate roof; pitched slate roof on an L-shaped plan (east), roll moulded clay ridge tiles, limestone ashlar chimney stack on axis with ridge having cut-granite stringcourse below cut-granite chamfered capping, timber bargeboards to gables on timber purlins, and remains of cast-iron rainwater goods on exposed timber rafters retaining cast-iron downpipes. Part creeper- or ivy-covered coursed or snecked limestone walls on drag edged tooled cut-limestone chamfered plinth with drag edged tooled cut-granite flush quoins to corners. Square-headed central door opening with drag edged tooled cut-limestone step threshold, and cut-granite surround having chamfered reveals framing glazed timber panelled door. Square-headed window openings with cut-granite chamfered flush sills, and cut-granite block-and-start surrounds having chamfered reveals with fittings now boarded up. Set back from line of street at entrance to grounds of Gowran Castle.
Appraisal
A gate lodge erected to a design attributed to John McCurdy (c.1824-85) of Dublin (Dean 2016, 213) illustrating the continued development or "improvement" of the Gowran Castle estate by Eliza Horatia Frederica Agar-Ellis (née Seymour) (1834-96), Viscountess Clifden, with the architectural value of the composition, one allegedly occupying the site of a seventeenth-century house [SMR KK020-060018-], confirmed by such attributes as the compact plan form centred on a restrained doorcase; the construction in a rough cut "blue" limestone offset by silver-grey granite dressings not only demonstrating good quality workmanship, but also compounding a sober two-tone palette; and the restrained timber work embellishing a high pitched roofline. A prolonged period of neglect notwithstanding, the elementary form and massing survive intact together with substantial quantities of the original fabric, thus upholding much of the character or integrity of a gate lodge forming part of a self-contained group alongside an adjacent gateway (see 12310002) with the resulting ensemble making a pleasing visual statement in a rural village street scene.