Dunbarton Lodge, 52 Dunbarton Street, Loughans, Gilford, CRAIGAVON, Co Down, BT63 6HJ

Dunbarton Lodge is a single-storey three-bay Victorian gate lodge built around 1845. It stands off Dunbarton Street in the north-west of Gilford village, adjacent to the gates at the rear entrance of Gilford Primary School. The building is set back from the main street and is largely screened from public view.

The lodge has a rectangular plan with a single-storey abutment to the north-east. It is roofed in natural slate with a hipped roof featuring leaded hips and ridge; a modern rooflight has been inserted into the roof pitch. The rendered chimney has a plain corbelled cornice. The eaves are finished with shaped brackets.

The exterior walls are finished in ruled and lined painted render with contrasting flush-finished quoins and plinth. The principal elevation, facing north-west, is symmetrically arranged with a centrally positioned timber door flanked by single windows on either side. The door has four bolection-moulded panels with a replacement over-light with a square head. The windows are replacement top-hung timber casements with 6/6 panes and painted masonry cills. Replacement uPVC rainwater goods have been installed throughout.

The north-east elevation is asymmetrically arranged with a modern half-door to the centre (the upper portion glazed) and a single-storey flat-roofed extension of no architectural interest. The south-east rear elevation is blank and completely cement-rendered. The south-west elevation has a single central horizontal multi-paned window.

The building has lost significant architectural detail through modernisation. It was extended to the side and has undergone an attic conversion, with much historic fabric lost in the process, though the original plan and appearance remain discernible. A coursed rubble masonry wall abuts the north-east elevation adjoining the gated rear entrance of the neighbouring primary school. The former abutting cinema building has been removed. A car wash now stands immediately to the rear.

The gate lodge was built around 1845 as one of two gate lodges to Dunbarton House, the residence of Hugh Dunbar, descendant of a linen family. The second gate lodge stands at 68 Dunbarton Road. Dunbarton House dates from around 1845 and may be the work of architect Thomas Jackson, who designed several houses for wealthy clients in the area. Hugh Dunbar (1789–1847) originally manufactured thread and linen cloth at Huntley, but in 1834, facing competition from mill-spun yarns produced by new wet-spinning processes, he established the Dunbar McMaster & Co spinning mill at Gilford, opening in 1839 in partnership with John Walsh McMaster of Armagh. The mill became one of the largest in Ireland during the 1840s and was the driver of economic growth and social development in the nineteenth-century village.

Hugh Dunbar died in 1847, shortly after completing his mansion. In 1858, John Walsh McMaster acquired both the mill and Dunbarton House, which became his residence from at least 1860. McMaster died in 1872, and the house passed to his eldest son Hugh Dunbar McMaster. By the 1901 census, McMaster was resident in the 22-room mansion at the age of 57, living with his Indian-born wife, three daughters, and a household including a Parisian governess and domestic staff. In 1901, Dunbar McMaster & Co was incorporated into the Linen Thread Company Limited, with production continuing at Gilford until the 1980s. After Hugh Dunbar McMaster's death in 1907, Dunbarton House lay vacant before being converted in 1915 into a hospital for wounded soldiers run by the Ulster Volunteer Force. By May 1915 it accommodated 214 patients, and in autumn 1916 a 30-bed annex opened at nearby Bannvale House. The War Office sent an illuminated address of thanks signed by Winston Churchill to Dunbarton House. The last resident noted in official records was John Archibald Dickie in 1921, after which the house became the property of the Moodie family, who owned the mill.

The gate lodge is first shown on the 1858 Ordnance Survey second edition map and is recorded in Griffith's Valuation (1856–64). The lodge is now privately owned as a separate dwelling and no longer forms part of the estate. It survives as part of the buildings associated with Dunbarton House, though external and internal alterations have detracted from its architectural and historic interest.