West Gate to Castletown Demesne

West Gate to Castletown Demesne

A fine pair of entrance gates built circa 1860–1879, which have group value with the other listed buildings within the Castletown Demesne.

Castletown Demesne is situated south-east of Monea village and accessed from the Leighan Road to the west. A much-altered single-storey L-shaped gate lodge of little architectural interest marks the entry point. From the lodge, a beech tree-lined driveway runs east to the gates of the house. The gates themselves consist of octagonal one-piece stone piers with small rounded stone bollards positioned to prevent them swinging too far open. Rubble stone walls run to either side of the gates, extending north to enclose the garden, with a lane running up to the rear yards. The wall at the gates features moulded masonry coping that appears to be the upturned cornice of an earlier structure; similar pieces are visible in the flower garden walls. A modern cattle grid has been installed. To the right, the boundary fence continues south along the edge of a second beech tree-lined driveway that runs to a ruined plantation castle to the south. From the gates, a short gravel driveway runs east to the front of the house, with a curving driveway at the west linking the front of the house to its rear yard.

The demesne has a long and documented history. Monea Castle, a plantation structure built in 1619 and one of the most intact of its type in Ulster, stands to the south and is a scheduled monument along with its garden and tree-lined avenue. After the castle burnt down in 1750, Monea Cottage was erected on the site of the current house. The Manor of Monea was purchased in 1790 by Mr J. Brien of Stralongford, County Tyrone. On his death in 1811, it passed to his fourth son, Captain John Brien (born 1776). An old schoolhouse, now demolished, was erected on the estate in 1802 by 'Lieutenant J. Brien', with a datestone preserved in the domestic yard. Captain John Brien married Charlotte Dawson in 1814, and their son John Dawson Brien was born in 1815 and inherited the estate in 1856. It was John Dawson Brien who built two gate lodges circa 1860, one to the west and one to the north. In 1869, having become High Sheriff and Deputy Lord Lieutenant of Fermanagh, he built the current main house. He died in 1881, and his widow Frances (née Smith) had the local Church of Ireland church, St. Molaise, rebuilt in his memory. The estate remained in the Brien family through the twentieth century and has not been sold since its purchase in 1790.

The first edition Ordnance Survey map shows the demesne with a lodge and main driveway to the north, but no west lodge, with the main house marked as Monea Cottage in cruciform plan. The second edition map records the construction of the west lodge and shows the tree-lined driveway to the old castle. The west lodge, built circa 1860, was single-storey with a hipped L-planned roof, a gable to the return, small segmental-headed windows and a door on its north elevation. This building was significantly altered and extended circa 1979.