73 Roguery Road, Toomebridge, Co.Antrim, BT41 3TJ

73 Roguery Road is an attractive detached single-storey gate lodge of Italianate design, built around 1855 to the designs of Sir Charles Lanyon. It stands at the west entrance to Moneyglass demesne, a rural estate in County Antrim. The lodge was later extended to the rear in 1982 in a similar style to the original construction.

The building is arranged on a T-plan, facing south, with a pitched natural slate roof featuring overhanging eaves supported on profiled brackets with timber painted fascia. A rendered chimney rises at the intersection of both roofs, topped with a moulded projection and surmounted by two octagonal pots. The walls are smooth rendered and painted masonry with a plinth and moulded stepped quoins and kneeler stones.

The principal elevation is gable-ended and fronted by a striking triple arched portico with a moulded pedestal, archivolts and consoled keystones supported on moulded imposts, with a cartouche at the apex. The central entrance comprises a single leaf timber four-panel door surmounted by a semi-circular radial glazed timber fanlight, moulded archivolt and consoled keystone supported by pilasters and moulded imposts; it is accessed by two stone steps. On each side of the portico is one narrow timber painted 2/2 sliding sash window with projected moulding and deep platform cills supported on square brackets. The west gable has a central tri-partite timber sliding sash window with projecting window surround, deep cill supported on fluted brackets, and a central cartouche above the window in a projecting arch. The east gable is detailed similarly to the west and is abutted to the north by the 1982 extension, which is of no historic significance. Windows throughout are timber painted 2/2 sliding sash unless otherwise stated.

The building is situated at the edge of the Moneyglass estate, accessed via four original sandstone octagonal entrance piers with deep recessed panels to the shafts and friezes surmounted by stone octagonal pillar caps, abutted by the remains of sandstone bases where original iron railings once existed. These are now replaced by a semi-circular arc of trees adjoining a further two original deeply vermiculated pillars, matching those seen at the original main entrance gate lodge to the Moneyglass estate at Duneane Road. The south pillar has been divided to create two smaller feature pillars for a new dwelling to the south.

Lanyon designed this lodge as the new main entrance to Moneyglass House following commission by Kenrick Morres Hamilton-Jones. The building appears on the second edition Ordnance Survey map of the area dated 1857. It forms an important architectural feature within the suite of buildings comprising this large rural estate and demonstrates Lanyon's characteristic attention to ornamentation and proportion.