Redburn Lodge, 368 Old Holywood Road, Holywood, Co Down, BT18 9QH

Redburn Lodge is a detached single and two-storey lodge built around 1885, probably designed by John Lanyon. Located on the east side of Old Holywood Road at its junction with Jacksons Road, it was formerly the gate lodge to Redburn House, the grand mansion of Robert Grimshaw Dunville, a member of the wealthy whiskey-distilling Dunville family. Redburn House itself was built in 1866 by the architectural practice Lanyon, Lynn and Lanyon at considerable expense, but was demolished after the Second World War.

The lodge was added to the estate following the death of George Jackson of the neighbouring Garden Lodge in 1883, which allowed Dunville to acquire additional land and establish a new entrance at the Holywood end of his property. The lodge was valued at £13 in 1886. After the war, Redburn House was replaced by a hotel, which was subsequently demolished and replaced by a nursing home. The remaining parkland and lodge were transferred to the Department of Environment in 1973 as Redburn Country Park.

The building is well detailed in the classical style and comprises a two-storey block on a north-south axis, abutted by single-storey gabled blocks to the east and west, with an attached gabled porch to the north-east re-entrant angle. A curved boundary wall encloses a yard to the south.

The roofs are pitched natural slate with deep overhanging eaves featuring exposed rafter ends. Decorative fretted timber bargeboards with dropped finials are supported on exposed timber corbels. A single ashlar sandstone corbelled chimneystack with four clay pots sits centrally over the two-storey block. The rainwater goods are replacement moulded profile cast-aluminium with round downpipes.

The walling is squared-and-snecked rockfaced sandstone with ashlar quoins and moulded sill courses over a corbelled plinth. Windows throughout are painted 1/1 timber sliding sashes with sash horns, set in square-headed openings with rockfaced sandstone voussoirs over moulded ashlar sandstone reveals and moulded sandstone sills.

The principal elevation faces north and contains a single window at each floor. To the east, an abutting gabled entrance porch comprises a timber panelled entrance door in a moulded surround, flanked by classically styled pilasters supporting a moulded round-headed arch containing a recessed roundel to the spandrel. The entrance is fronted by a gabled open porch comprising a sandstone pedestal with infill stone balustrade over a sandstone plinth. The pedestal is surmounted by paired square columns supporting a frieze and cornice, broken at the centre by a moulded round-headed arch. The west elevation of the open porch is enclosed by an original decorative wrought-iron screen. The east elevation of the porch contains, at left, a single window flanked by engaged pilasters, and at right an opening flanked by pilasters, all supporting a moulded frieze and cornice, with rockfaced sandstone above to the eaves.

To the east, the two-storey block is abutted at its centre by a single-storey gabled block. At first floor, the exposed section is blank. The single-storey block's east elevation contains a single window; its north and south elevations are blank.

The south elevation of the two-storey block contains, at ground floor, a central square-headed door opening with a replacement timber panelled door, flanked at left by a single window and at right by a single stairwell window; a single window appears at first floor. This elevation is abutted at right by a single-storey timber sheeted lean-to shed.

To the west, the two-storey block is abutted at its centre by a single-storey gabled block. The exposed section at left contains a single window; the exposed section at right is blank. The single-storey block's west elevation contains a single window and its north elevation contains a single window; the south elevation is blank.

The lodge retains much of its original character, with the timber and metalwork detailing being of particular note. The plan remains largely unchanged from the original, making this a good and original example of a Victorian gate lodge.

The setting comprises the lodge set in its own grounds with a single-storey timber shed to the south. An enclosed yard to the south is bounded by curved squared-and-snecked rockfaced sandstone walling with ashlar coping, containing a timber panelled entrance door at the south. The site is bounded at north and west by metal railings and hedging, with pedestrian access to the north via a single metal gate supported on octagonal piers. Within the garden to the east, a section of original metal railings and a decorative gate post is retained; the garden is bounded to the east by hedging and to the south by block walling. Vehicular access to the south-west of the site comprises double-leaf metal entrance gates supported on square coursed rockfaced stone piers with pyramidal coping, flanked by short sections of walling to each side.