Whitegate Lodge, Shane's Castle Park, Antrim, Co Antrim, BT41 4NE

Whitegate Lodge is a mid-19th century gate lodge built in Tudor style, situated at an entrance to the wooded demesne of Shane's Castle estate in County Antrim. The building is thought to date to the 1840s and may have been designed by architect James Sands, who was involved with the Shane's Castle estate in 1848. It appears on the Ordnance Survey map of 1858. The lodge has group value with other listed buildings on the estate.

The main building is a rectangular single-storey structure with three bays, rendered walls, and a roof of Bangor blue slates in regular courses. The main entrance faces east, with a symmetrical east elevation featuring a central entrance set within a shallow gabled breakfront. Two square-section chimneys, positioned equidistantly on the ridge and set at 45° to the base, are constructed of rhyolite with plain block cornices.

The walls are smooth rendered with rusticated quoins at the extremities, a projecting plinth, and a projecting eaves course. Cast iron gutters and downpipes run around the building. The side bays each contain one window: modern rectangular timber fixed lights with top-hung vents, chamfered reveals, projecting concrete cills, and label moulding above. The central bay projects forward with similar quoins; it features oversailing eaves with unusually elaborate openwork timber barge boards decorated with cusped tracery incorporating quatrefoil motifs.

The entrance comprises a four-centre arched opening containing an original rectangular timber 6-panel door surmounted by an arched 3-pane fanlight with moulded timber frame, set in chamfered reveals and topped with a label moulding. Above the doorway, in the apex of the gable, is a relief carved and painted stone armorial plaque. A concrete ramped doorstep provides access.

The south gable is rendered similarly to the entrance elevation and features comparable elaborate decorative timber barge boards to the overhanging eaves. This gable contains one window matching those on the entrance front. A small later extension projects forward at the left-hand extremity, with a single-pitch roof continuous with the slope of the main roof to the rear. The extension walls are smooth rendered with a course of ridge tiles to the top of the east wall and a flush verge to the south wall.

The rear elevation originally contained quoins at the left-hand extremity only, but the entire original rear wall is now covered by a lean-to extension. The main roof is slated as described above; the extension roof follows a shallower pitch. The walling is roughly coursed basalt rubble with a projecting brick eaves course and brick block window dressings, finished with smooth rendering to the right-hand portion containing the rear doorway and one window. Windows are modern rectangular timber fixed lights with top-hung vents and a casement, with projecting concrete cills (except for one window to the left of the doorway, which has a rhyolite cill). The doorway contains a modern rectangular flush timber door with a glazed panel set in plain reveals and a concrete step. Cast iron gutters and downpipes are fitted to the rear. The north end wall of the lean-to extension is blank, smooth rendered, lined and blocked, with a flush verge to the roof and cast iron gutters returning across from the rear elevation.

The north gable is similar to the south gable, except for an armorial plaque of similar design positioned in the apex.

The building stands in a rural setting within the grounds of Shane's Castle estate. It is positioned end-on to the main road, set back slightly within its own garden and facing a tarmac driveway to the estate, with the main entrance gateway adjacent. A small garden enclosed by original iron railings occupies the front, containing a small gate opposite the lodge entrance. A concrete path leads to the front door, with stony paths to each side within the front garden. The south end is closed by a hedge, and the north end by a basalt rubble estate wall.

To the rear is a yard bounded to the north and south by basalt rubble walls, with a modern corrugated iron gate on the south side. A gabled basalt outbuilding and open shelter close the west side of the yard. The rectangular outbuilding has a roof of Bangor blue slates in regular courses, walls of roughly coursed basalt rubble, two rectangular sheeted timber doors, and a large pair of sheeted timber garage doors all set in roughly cemented reveals. Two windows are present: one to the left-hand end is a rectangular timber 6-pane fixed light in a wide exposed frame with a timber cill; the other to the right is a modern rectangular bottom-hung vent with a similar frame and cill. Cast iron gutter and downpipe are fitted. End gables are of basalt rubble. A lean-to modern garage of timber and corrugated iron stands to the right-hand end, with an open timber and corrugated iron shelter adjacent. The rear of the outbuilding is basalt rubble with one sheeted timber door. An orchard lies to the rear of the outbuilding.

The main gateway comprises a pair of large iron gates of plain design mounted on rectangular openwork iron piers with decorative panels to front and rear. Close to, but not structurally connected with, the ironwork piers are stays from which railings extend to each side, curving forward at the outer extremities to abut square masonry end piers. The ironwork stays are topped with cast iron urn finials. A screen to the west incorporates a small pedestrian gate. The end piers are constructed of snecked basalt with a rhyolite frieze, moulded cornice, and cap. Basalt rubble estate walls extend for a considerable distance to each side from the end piers.

The building was originally designed as a gate lodge to Shane's Castle. The original windows on the entrance front were replaced by windows of different pattern by 1970. The main gates were widened in 1990 through the removal of pedestrian gates and extension of the main gates. The extent of listing includes the lodge, the railings to the front garden, and the main entrance gates, railings, and stone piers.