263 Belmont Road, (Former north gate lodge Ormiston), Belfast, County Antrim, BT4 2AJ

263 Belmont Road is a single-storey gate lodge built circa 1874, formerly serving as the northern entrance lodge to Ormiston House. It is an architecturally accomplished example of Scots Baronial design executed in un-coursed rock-faced Scrabo sandstone with red sandstone dressings.

The building presents a symmetrical three-bay composition facing east, dominated by crow-stepped gables at each end and a projecting central porch. The gables are crowned with carved emblems of the three kingdoms—a thistle to the entrance porch apex, a rose to the south gable, and a shamrock to the north gable. The roof is pitched natural slate to the front section, with roll-top stone ridge tiles and a projecting ogee cornice supporting uPVC guttering. Two original circular cast-iron downpipes and hoppers survive to the north and south elevations. A stone chimneystack with corbelled coping supports two ornate octagonal buff clay chimney pots.

The principal east elevation features a projecting entrance porch with crow-stepped gable and carved thistle. The door opening has chamfered lintel and jambs, with a double vertical-sheeted studded timber door featuring decorative strap hinges and opening onto a single nosed stone step. Narrow window openings flank the porch to north and south; single windows appear in the east and west bays. Window openings throughout are square-headed with stop-chamfered jambs and headers; the original glazing has been replaced with uPVC top-hung casement windows. The south elevation comprises two bays: the gabled end of the original building (with carved rose to apex) and a projecting flat-roofed extension with parapet and ogee cornice. The north elevation similarly consists of the original gabled end (with carved shamrock to apex and double windows) and a recessed flat-roofed extension with moulded cornice. The west elevation comprises the two rear extensions; the northern extension has two small window openings and a square-headed door with vertical-sheeted split half door with glazed panel, whilst the southern extension projects above eaves level with a single window.

Two single-storey flat-roofed extensions were added to the rear between 1938 and 1954, altering the original T-shaped ground plan (entrance porch with two interior rooms) but not materially compromising the building's character and proportions.

The lodge was built for James Combe, a Scottish-born linen manufacturer and iron founder with Combe, Barbour & Combe Ltd. It was valued at £4 in the 1874 Annual Revisions and increased to £5 by 1897. When Ormiston House passed to William Pirrie in 1890, the lodge was maintained as a private dwelling. The 1911 Census of Ireland recorded it as a second-class dwelling with three rooms, occupied by Pirrie's gardener. After Harland and Wolff sold Ormiston House to Campbell College in 1928, the northern gate lodge remained in private ownership. Its rateable value increased to £14 under the First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1935) and to £18 by the end of the Second Revaluation (1956–72).

The building forms an important group with Ormiston House, the stableblock, and the east gate lodge on Hawthornden Road. Although some original fabric and detail have been lost internally and externally, the structure has retained its distinctive character, style, and proportions. The site is located at the corner of Belmont Road and Pirie Road, with paving to three sides and a garden to the north, enclosed by hedge and two timber gates to the east.