Glenside Lodge, 68 Ligoniel Road, Belfast, Co Antrim BT14 8BY

Glenside Lodge is a detached symmetrical three-bay single-storey gate lodge built between 1857 and 1859 in the townland of Ballysillan Lower. The building is located on the south side of Ligoniel Road within a mature site enclosed by tall hedgerow and accessed via a short bitumac driveway.

The lodge is constructed with painted channel-rusticated stucco walling over a plinth course, with clasping corner pilasters. It features a hipped natural slate roof with synthetic ridge tiles, lead valleys, and a central rendered profiled chimneystack with terracotta pots. Moulded cast-iron guttering is supported on moulded and bracketed overhanging eaves.

The three-bay front elevation, facing west, is dominated by a pedimented Doric entrance portico. The square-headed door opening is flanked by Doric pilasters with responding Doric columns supporting an entablature and bracketed pediment. The pediment houses a painted shield depicting a rampant lion wielding a battle-axe, identifying the lodge as built by the Emerson family. Window openings are square-headed with moulded architrave surrounds and diamond-faced keystones, framing original paired horizontally-glazed 2/2 timber sash windows without horns. The single-bay side elevation is detailed as per the front elevation. A single-storey flat-roofed extension has been added to the rear, with a small rear yard enclosed by a ruled-and-lined rendered wall.

The building was originally constructed as the gate lodge for Glenside House, the residence of John Emerson, a local flax spinner and owner of the Ballysillan Flax Spinning Mill. Griffith's Valuation of 1859 valued Glenside House and its gate lodge jointly at £35, while the extensive mills were valued at £235. John Emerson resided at Glenside House until his death in 1873, after which his widow Anne Emerson took possession until 1891. In that year Dr Charles James Milligan, a local physician and surgeon, converted the house into a private medical asylum. By 1897, Glenside Lodge and its gate lodge were valued separately for the first time, with the lodge valued at £5 and occupied by Mr Alexander Simpson. The 1901 census recorded the lodge as jointly occupied by Thomas Campbell and W. Bickerstaff, employed as gardeners. By 1901 the Ballysillan Flax Spinning Mills had been acquired by the Doagh Flax Spinning Co. Ltd. In 1908 John Ferguson Wilson, the company's manager, took possession of Glenside House, and the gate lodge was occupied by Louisa Boyd, a widow whose children were employed in Wilson's flax mill as yarn weavers and reelers. The 1911 census building return described the gate lodge as a second-class dwelling consisting of four rooms. The Boyd family continued to reside at Glenside Lodge until the 1920s. Under the First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936–57), the lodge was occupied by Mr John Moffat, a driver, and valued at £7 and ten shillings. The Second Revaluation (1956–72) increased the value to £12 and noted that the building remained leased by the Doagh Flax Spinning Co. Ltd.

The building was listed in 1987. A restoration in 1991 involved repair and replacement of chimneys and chimney pots. In 1998 the lodge underwent further renovation, including reslating of the roof in natural slate, installation of new cast-iron rainwater goods, installation of new sliding sash windows, and construction of the single-storey flat-roof extension to the south-east side. Further repair work, including roof reslating and window repairs, was undertaken around 2008 after the building had fallen into a state of disrepair.

The setting comprises a mature site on the south side of Ligoniel Road. Access is via a short bitumac driveway opening onto the road through a pair of timber gates hung on octagonal rendered piers with moulded plinths and splayed red brick walls. The lodge constitutes the only surviving remnant of the Emerson estate in the area, retaining its original garden and screen wall.