Survey Data
Reg No
40401506
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Historical, Social
Original Use
Gate lodge
Date
1835 - 1840
Coordinates
241227, 316376
Date Recorded
11/06/2012
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Detached Tudor Gothic two-bay single-storey gate lodge, built 1837, having gabled projecting porch to entrance front, single-storey return with extension to rear. Pitched slate roof with sandstone clay tiles, centrally positioned stone and brick chimneystack, cast-iron rainwater goods to original structure and part of extension. Oversailing eaves with timber soffit on paired timber brackets having timber wave and foil open decorative bargeboard to road-facing gable, recent timber barges to porch. Squared coursed rubble stone walls, with dresses limestone quoins, rock-faced ashlar to porch with bevelled sandstone plinth. Rubble stone walls with brick quoins to return. Crenellated canted bay window to east elevation with stone weathering to roof under blank shield surmounted by spur crest of Saunderson family. Metal lattice windows with chamfered sandstone surrounds and mullions, carved sandstone Tudor hoods. Recent timber casement windows to extension. Replacement timber boarded door to entrance, with stone-framed vent opening above door. Adjacent gateway at road having decorative cast-iron gates in square-profile rock-faced piers with concave pyramidal caps, finials missing, flanking wing railings set on stone plinth walls with bevelled stone copings.
Appraisal
A decorative gate lodge of picturesque quality forming part of the Cloverhill Demesne, retaining many of its original features including expertly carved stone architectural detail, intricate bargeboards, and lattice windows. The gate piers are identical to those at the Legakelly entrance to Castle Saunderson just two miles away where, which according to Dean’s 'Gate Lodges of Ulster', were designed by the English architect Edward Blore who was employed by the other branch of the Saunderson family. Together with the main house designed by Francis Johnston, the entrance and gate lodge, form part of a significant group of the desmesne related structures.