Survey Data
Reg No
13401456
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Artistic
Previous Name
Farraghroe House
Original Use
Gates/railings/walls
In Use As
Gates/railings/walls
Date
1840 - 1860
Coordinates
219432, 277503
Date Recorded
17/02/2009
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Gateway, built c. 1850, formerly serving Farragh/Farraghroe House, now demolished. Comprising a pair of ashlar limestone piers (on square-plan) having carved stepped capstones, chamfered ashlar limestone plinths and double-leaf cast-iron gates. Stile adjacent to east pier. Gateway flanked to either side by quadrant sections of rubble limestone masonry walls having cut limestone coping and terminated by coursed limestone gate piers (on square-plan) having carved stepped capstones. Rubble stone boundary walls to the east and west. Located to the northwest of the site of Farragh/Farraghroe House, at the start of long approach avenue, and to the southwest of Ballinalee. Attendant gate lodge (13401426) adjacent to the southeast.
Appraisal
This elegant gateway originally served as the northwest entrance to Farragh/Farraghroe House, now demolished, and forms an integral element of a group of structures associated with this house. The level of craftsmanship involved in the construction of the piers is of very high quality, while the ornamental cast-iron gates further enhance the aesthetic appeal of the site. This gateway provides an insight into the importance of the house it formerly served, the residence of the Bond family throughout the nineteenth and twentieth until it was sold and subsequently demolished c. 1960. It forms a related pair of structures with the adjacent gate lodge (13401426) to the southeast, and adds artistic interest to the roadscape to the southwest of Ballinalee. It is possible that this gateway was built as part of the works carried out at Farragh/Farraghroe House to designs by Nathaniel Montgomery, c. 1850.