Survey Data
Reg No
13312035
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Artistic, Historical, Technical
Original Use
Gates/railings/walls
In Use As
Gates/railings/walls
Date
1840 - 1880
Coordinates
220635, 268576
Date Recorded
21/07/2005
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Gateway serving the southeast entrance to Ardagh House (13312039), erected c. 1863, comprising a central pair of cut limestone gate piers (on square-plan) with fielded panels, chamfered plinths and carved capstones with roundel and fielded stud detailing. Elaborate wrought-iron double leaf gates. Central gateway flanked to either side by sections of coursed dressed limestone wall (on quadrant-plan) with triangular-profile coping, cut stone gate piers and elaborate wrought-iron railings over and terminated by gate piers of a similar design to central piers. Former pedestrian entrance to the east side of central carriage entrance with wrought-iron gate. Located to the southeast of Ardagh House (13312039) and to the east of Ardagh. Random rubble stone boundary wall with rounded stone coping to east and west. Associated gate lodge to the northeast (13312034).
Appraisal
This well-detailed sweeping gateway forms an appropriately fine entrance to the Ardagh House (13312029) demesne. Fine craftsmanship is evident in the design and detailing, particularly to the piers and the wrought-iron gates and railings, and this gateway is one of a number of high quality entrance groups in the village of Ardagh. The elegant wrought-iron work is similar in form to that seen in the railings surrounding the Clock Tower (13312017) at Ardagh, suggesting that they were the work of the same individual/firm. It forms part of an important collection of related sites associated with the main house and it forms an attractive pair with the associated gate lodge (13312034). It was probably erected to designs by the architect James Rawson Carroll (1830 – 1911), who carried out various works at Ardagh and at Ardagh House for Sir Thomas Fetherston between c. 1860 – 1865. A photograph from the Fetherston family album dated 8 April 1877 shows that it remains relatively unchanged.