Survey Data
Reg No
21905405
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Artistic, Scientific
Original Use
Demesne walls/gates/railings
In Use As
Gates/railings/walls
Date
1890 - 1910
Coordinates
135675, 121757
Date Recorded
06/07/2009
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Freestanding Egyptian style gateway to Springfield Castle, built c. 1900. Having rubble stone walls to splayed entrance, comprising central square-headed arch with battered ashlar dressed limestone piers surmounted by later inscribed concrete lintel with double-leaf wrought-iron gates. Flanked by pointed arch door openings having tooled limestone voussoirs and single-leaf wrought-iron gates. Later render pinnacled turrets and commemorative plaque to eastern end of front (south-east) elevation.
Appraisal
This unusual gateway provides a suitably grand entrance to Springfield Castle. Retaining much of its original form and fabric including dressed limestone piers, contrasting pointed arch doorways and later additions of pinnacled turrets enliven the façade and complement the Gothic Revival style employed at Springfield Castle. The plaque commemorates a historic character, Daithi O'Bruadair, a seventeenth-century classical Irish poet who lived within the castle, with his patrons the Fitzgerald family. The Deane family motto is engraved above the gate: 'Forti et Fideli Nihil Difficile', which means 'To The Brave and Faithful Nothing is Impossible.'