Gate Screen, Groomsport House, Donaghadee Road, Groomsport, Co Down is a Grade Record Only listed building in the Ards and North Down local planning authority area, Northern Ireland. First listed on 6 January 1975.
Gate Screen, Groomsport House, Donaghadee Road, Groomsport, Co Down
- WRENN ID
- dusk-steeple-ash
- Grade
- Record Only
- Local Planning Authority
- Ards and North Down
- Constituency
- North Down MP: Alex Easton (Ind)
- Country
- Northern Ireland
- Date first listed
- 6 January 1975
- Irish grid reference
- J 540 831
- Coordinates
- 54.67307, -5.61319
- Source
- NI Environment Agency listing
Description
Gate Screen at Groomsport House
The gate screen at Groomsport House is a formal entrance feature built around 1850, comprising hexagonal sandstone piers set on bevelled plinths, each with cornice, plain frieze and coronet finials. The screen was designed by architect James Sands, who also designed the main house in 1849 for Robert Perceval Maxwell, and the adjacent Tudor Revival gate lodge shortly afterwards.
The screen's arrangement consists of main entrance gates flanked by single piers supporting decorative wrought iron gates, with decorative steel pedestrian gates hung on cast-iron piers. To the left within the entrance are two further identical sandstone piers arranged consecutively; those to the right have been removed. The drive, now surfaced in tarmacadam, provides access to a modern housing development that now surrounds the property.
The lodge and screen are documented on the second edition Ordnance Survey map of 1858. In Griffith's Valuation (1856–64), the lodge is entered after the main house, indicating its later construction. The valuation of Groomsport House itself increased from £58 to £75 following the completion of the lodge and screen, reflecting their value as improvements to the property. The chimneys of the Tudor Revival gate lodge are stylistically coherent with the screen's design, suggesting a unified architectural scheme by Sands.
The gate screen has been partially demolished, possibly reconfigured in the process, and its setting has been substantially degraded by the subsequent large modern housing development. Despite these losses and the serious compromise to both the main house and lodge, the surviving remains of the screen retain architectural interest as a mid-19th century entrance feature.
Local climate
Gate Screen, Groomsport House, Donaghadee Road, Groomsport, Co Down sits in a wetter-than-average part of the UK, with an average of 1,130 mm of rain a year. This makes it wetter than 88% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is greater than that of 94% of listed buildings.
It experiences an average of 1 freeze-thaw cycle a year, fewer than 99% of listed buildings. Of these, 1 follows at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.2°C per decade since 1991.
Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.
More on this building
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- No EPC on record for this property
- No sale records on file
- No related consent applications matched
- Detailed attributes — period, style, materials, features
- No flood data for this area
- Radon risk assessment
- Weather exposure and heating demand — rain and frost month by month and year by year, wind direction, solar and humidity
Matched applications, energy data and sale records are assembled automatically and may contain errors. Flag incorrect data.
Similar buildings
The closest matches to this building from all 493,000 UK listed buildings, by architecture, period and materials.
- 1 Gates, Gatepiers and Screens at Walton Hall Lodge (Now Lodge to Crematorium)
- 2 Entrance Gates for Portaferry House, Church Street, Portaferry, Co Down
- 3 Gate screen, Scarvagh House, 31 Old Mill Road, Scarva, CRAIGAVON, Co Down, BT63 6NL
- 4 Lodge, Hillsborough Castle, The Square, Hillsborough, Co. Down, BT26 6AG
- 5 Gate Piers and Screen Walls
this building 1 similar nearby listed buildings
Nearby listed buildings
- Gate Lodge, 1 Groomsport House Road, Groomsport, Bangor, Co Down, BT19 6GH
- Groomsport House, Groomsport House Road, Groomsport, Co Down, BT19 6GH
- Groomsport Parish Church, Donaghadee Road, Groomsport, Co Down, BT19 6LG
- The Lodge, 1 Donaghadee Road, Groomsport, Co Down, BT19 6LG
- Fountain No.1, Andrew’s Shorefield, Balloo Lower, Groomsport, Bangor, Co Down, BT19 6LJ
- Groomsport Presbyterian Church, Main Street, Groomsport, Bangor-, Co Down
- Fountain No.2, Andrew’s Shorefield, Balloo Lower, Groomsport, Bangor, Co Down, BT19 6LJ
- Fountain No.4, Andrew’s Shorefield, Balloo Lower, Groomsport, Bangor, Co Down, BT19 6LJ
- 26 Andrew’s Shorefield, Balloo Lower, Groomsport, Bangor, Co Down, BT19 6LJ
- Fountain No.3