Former Gate Lodge, 14 Glendun Road, Cushendun, Co. Antrim, BT44 0PX

Former Gate Lodge, 14 Glendun Road, Cushendun, Co. Antrim

This is a detached, single-storey, four-bay former gate lodge, built around 1920 and designed in a Neo-Georgian style, most likely by the English architect Sir Bertram Clough Williams-Ellis (1883–1978). It stands at the entrance to what is now Cushendun Caravan Park, on the south-east side of Glendun Road, set back slightly from the road and enclosed by rubble red sandstone walls. A flat-roofed extension was added to the rear around 1970 to facilitate a change of use, connected to the original building by an off-centre corridor. The building is now used as the caravan park's entrance office, approached by a double vehicular bitmac entrance with barriers.

Architectural Character

The lodge is rectangular on plan, facing south-west. Its hipped roof is covered in natural slate with black clay ridge and hip tiles. Two symmetrically placed red brick chimneystacks rise from the roof, each with a cement coping and terracotta pots. Cast-iron rainwater goods run beneath the overhanging eaves. The walls are finished in painted rough-cast render, with a smooth rendered plinth course and rusticated render quoins — details consistent with Williams-Ellis's Neo-Georgian vocabulary seen elsewhere in the village.

All window openings are square-headed with moulded architrave surrounds, painted masonry sills, and original multi-pane timber sliding sash windows with ogee horns. Much of the original historic glass survives intact.

Elevations

The principal south-west front elevation is four bays wide. It features an off-centre square-headed doorway fitted with a timber panelled and glazed door. The windows are arranged as tripartite groupings, with a 9-over-9 sash to the centre flanked by 6-over-6 sashes on each side. The north-east side elevation is blind. The rear elevation contains two original 15-over-15 timber sliding sash windows alongside the corridor connecting to the rear extension. The two-bay south-east side elevation also features tripartite windows.

Historical Context

The lodge was originally built to serve Glenmona Lodge, a substantial summer mansion whose origins date to before 1832, when it was first established by Edmund McNeill (1821–1915), a prominent local landlord. The house grew considerably in size between the 1830s and the mid-19th century. Griffith's Valuation of 1859 recorded the combined rateable value of Glenmona Lodge and its then gate lodge at £60. That earlier gate lodge — a simple rectangular structure positioned slightly to the south-east of the present building — appeared on the third edition Ordnance Survey map of 1903–04 but had been demolished by the time of the fourth edition in 1922.

The present lodge at No. 14 Glendun Road was first recorded in the Annual Revisions of 1920, confirming it had been newly erected at the northern entrance to Glenmona Lodge by that date. The Dictionary of Irish Architects records that Williams-Ellis had prepared designs for a new gate lodge at Glenmona as early as 1913. This attribution is strongly supported by his documented involvement with other buildings in Cushendun: he designed The Square in 1912 and Maud Cottages in 1926, both in a Neo-Georgian style, and he carried out an extensive refurbishment of Glenmona Lodge itself in 1923–24, following vandalism and fire damage. The Neo-Georgian character of this lodge — its hipped roof, Georgian-style sash windows, and careful proportions — is entirely consistent with Williams-Ellis's work in the village.

Cushendun itself had grown from a modest settlement into a popular seaside resort during the 19th century. The village's development was bound up with the broader opening up of the Antrim coast: travel across mainland Europe was curtailed during the Napoleonic Wars, making Ireland an attractive destination for British tourists, and the construction of the Coastal Road between 1832 and 1842 made the previously isolated Glens of Antrim accessible. A number of substantial summer houses — known as "bathing lodges" — were built along the coast by city-based professionals and merchants, including Glenmona Lodge and Glendun Lodge at Cushendun.

Following Williams-Ellis's refurbishment, Glenmona Lodge was reoccupied by Ronald McNeill and his family. The combined rateable value of the house and gate lodge rose to £155 under the First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936–57). After McNeill's death in 1934, the property remained with his family until 1954, when Glenmona Lodge and the majority of buildings in the village passed into the care of the National Trust. The house was subsequently converted into a retirement home administered by the County Antrim Welfare Authority, and by the close of the Second General Revaluation (1956–72), the total rateable value of the house and its outbuildings — including this gate lodge — stood at £300.

Glenmona Lodge was listed in 1980, the same year the Cushendun Conservation Area was designated to protect and enhance the village's special character. The Cushendun Conservation Area Guide draws a direct comparison between Williams-Ellis's work in Cushendun — encompassing The Square, Maud Cottages, Glenmona Lodge, and this gate lodge — and his more famous creation at Portmeirion in Wales, describing Cushendun as "a true precursor of the renowned architect's famous architectural fantasy village."

Significance and Condition

Despite the loss of much of its original internal fabric, the former gate lodge retains the great majority of its external character, including its original sash windows with surviving historic glass. The rear extension of around 1970, built to accommodate the change of use, involved minimal intervention to the exterior of the original structure. The building is now under separate ownership from Glenmona Lodge but remains within sight of the main house. It has group value with Glenmona Lodge and forms an important part of the collection of buildings designed by Williams-Ellis that give Cushendun its distinctive architectural identity.