Gatelodge, Fermanagh and Tyrone Hospital, 1 Donaghanie Road, Omagh, Co Tyrone, BT79 0NS

The Gate Lodge at Tyrone and Fermanagh Hospital

A detached two-bay one-and-a-half-storey gate lodge built around 1850 to designs by architect William Farrell. Located on the west side of Donaghanie Road in Omagh, the lodge stands east of and was built concurrently with the main hospital complex. Although modernised, the plan, layout, exterior proportions and characteristics remain largely intact. The gate lodge held an important functional role in the hospital's operation and has value as part of a group of buildings on the site, including the main hospital building, Catholic Church, and Protestant Church, representing a significant phase in the history of such institutions.

The building follows an L-plan facing north, with a single-storey porch positioned at the internal angle. A series of lean-to extensions extend to the rear. The principal north elevation features a projecting gabled bay at the left containing a single window at each floor (diminished at first floor), with a square-headed loophole to the apex. The right bay contains a single window with stone voussoirs over. The internal angle is abutted by the single-storey porch, which has a pitched natural slate roof. The east elevation is blank. The south elevation is largely obscured by four lean-to extensions; the exposed gable section contains a single window at first floor with a yellow brick stepped surround and square-headed loophole to the apex. The west gable contains a window at each floor, with that at first floor diminished.

The porch has a pitched natural slate roof detailed as the main block, with walls of coursed dressed sandstone. Its north gable contains a segmental-arched-headed opening with a segmental-arched-headed timber sheeted door with weatherboards, accessed by a single masonry step. The right cheek contains a single window.

The main block walls are of roughly coursed squared-and-snecked rubble with droved finish, featuring stepped sandstone quoins and a projecting chamfered plinth. Roofs are pitched natural slate with blue and black clay ridge tiles, lead valleys, and saddleback stone verges with projecting kneeler blocks supported on moulded corbels. Rainwater goods are of u-profile cast iron supported on a corbelled eaves course, with cast-iron hoppers. Windows are multi-pane square-headed metal casements within stepped chamfered sandstone surrounds and flush splayed cills, unless otherwise stated.

The rear extensions have felt lean-to roofs and cement-rendered walls with replacement timber casement windows. Three extensions at the left are contained within an enclosed yard bound by a random rubble wall with segmental coping. The fourth extension (boiler house) remains outside the enclosed yard and appears to be more recently constructed.

The lodge is set within the grounds of Tyrone and Fermanagh Hospital, situated east of the main hospital block and north of the Protestant Church. It is bounded by Donaghanie Road to the east and the hospital entrance with car parking to the north.

The gate lodge first appears on the second edition Ordnance Survey map of 1854 and was likely constructed concurrently with the main hospital block (1847–1853). The stone used was transported by horse and cart from a quarry at Lack, the same source as that employed for the main buildings. The hospital, originally called the Omagh District Lunatic Asylum, formed part of the second series of asylums erected by the Irish Board of Works at a cost of £35,000. The hospital was designed for 300 patients and eventually cost £41,407 12 shillings 2 pence. Farrell's Elizabethan-style treatment of the hospital main block is shared with the Picturesque-styled gate lodge, a design approach dictated by the Board of Works, which required that asylums be of pleasing designs in the Gothic style and not resemble jails or workhouses. The hospital was enlarged several times and eventually accommodated over 1,000 patients. The nearby Protestant Church of the hospital was built between 1903 and 1904, meaning the gate lodge appears isolated in historic photographs before then, such as a frontal view of the hospital main block dated 1880.

By 1921, records indicate that an attendant's wife took charge of the Gate Lodge for £10 per year with light, fuel and house provided free. During partition in 1922, all staff were required to swear an oath of allegiance to the Crown, leading to some dismissals. The woman who occupied the lodge took the oath, and by 1924 her pay had increased to £15 per annum for the gate lodge plus free fuel and light, while married attendants received 10 shillings yearly towards bog rent and free patient labour for securing turf.