Gates and gate screen at Dunmore Lodge, 1 Dunmore Park, Randalstown, Antrim, Co Antrim, BT41 3LB

Gates and gate screen at Dunmore Lodge, Randalstown

A fine set of iron gates and gate screen that retains group value with other listed buildings on the Shane's Castle estate, although it no longer leads directly to the centre of the estate.

The building comprises a two-storey house on an asymmetrical plan with an attached gateway and screen. The gateway faces west while the main entrance to the house faces north. The entrance front has smooth rendered walls, a roof of Bangor blue slates in regular courses with a portion in fish-scale slates, timber fascia boards, cast iron rainwater goods, rectangular metal windows, and a glazed and panelled door. The gables and rear elevation are of similar character with comparable windows.

The gateway and screen consists of four square smooth rendered panelled piers with moulded cornices and sandstone plinths. These contain a central pair of original decoratively treated iron gates mounted on square-plan openwork iron secondary posts with ball finials. On each side are twin pedestrian gates with similar iron secondary posts. Extending south from the end stone pier is a curving screen linked to the house, comprising a low sandstone plinth wall with smooth render surmounted by spear-headed railings. Extending north from the other outer stone pier is a screen wall of basalt rubble with ramped concrete coping.

The house and gateway are located along a driveway off the main road, approached by a bridge over the former railway line. The setting includes grassed areas and trees surrounding the building. To the rear is a small yard bounded by basalt rubble walls, containing a basalt rubble outbuilding with smooth rendered entrance gable.

Built by the O'Neill family as a gate lodge to Shane's Castle estate, the building does not have a precisely recorded construction date but appears on the Ordnance Survey map of 1858. An original photograph shows that it was initially a 1½ storey building with ornamental timber barge boards, tall octagonal stone chimneys, and other details comparable with other lodges to the estate attributed to architect James Sands. Stylistically this lodge may also be dated to probably the 1840s and may similarly be a work by Sands, who is known to have been connected with the estate in 1848. The building has been cut off from the main part of the estate since the deerpark was taken over by the Forest Service. The date when the house was modernised is not recorded.