Willowtree Cottage, River Road, Kilmakee, Dunmurry, Co Antrim

Willowtree Cottage is a one-and-a-half-storey stuccoed Arts-and-Crafts gate lodge built around 1900 to designs by the prominent local architect Henry Hobart. It stands at the junction of Conway Lane and River Road in Lambeg, and was formerly the entrance lodge to Conway House, now demolished.

The original building is rectangular in plan, aligned north-south, with a single-storey return at the east and a decorative timber entrance porch at the internal angle. A single-storey extension was added to the south by a former owner and subsequently converted to two storeys around 1990.

The roof is pitched, covered with red terracotta scalloped tiles with crested terracotta ridge tiles and finials. A catslide roof covers the entrance porch. There is a roof light to the east, deep overhanging timber eaves, and painted ogee cast-iron rainwater goods above exposed moulded rafter-ends. Moulded timber bargeboards are supported on paired timber brackets. A single tall brick corbelled chimneystack with clay pots rises from the roof.

The walls are double-Flemish bonded red brick over a stepped chamfered plinth. At first floor, a jetty bressumer features decorative nogging, herringbone bracing, and quatrefoil timbers below the windows. Windows are square-headed timber framed lattice casements in timber moulded frames with chamfered painted masonry sills and heads.

The principal elevation faces north. At the right, a projecting gabled bay contains a central canted bay window at ground floor, flanked by original wall-mounted lanterns and surmounted by a jettied first floor supported by a moulded cornice and timber brackets. The first floor comprises a single window within decorative half-timbering. To the left, a single-storey bay contains a single window, with a decorative timber lean-to entrance porch abutting the re-entrant angle. The entrance porch has chamfered timber framing with herringboard timber to the bottom panels and glazing to sidelights and transom lights. The timber panelled door at the north has 3/3/3 glazed panels, most original, with original brass ironmongery, accessed by a single stone step.

The east elevation has a projecting gabled bay at the left containing a central canted bay window, with a re-entrant angle at the right abutted by a decorative timber entrance porch. The south rear elevation features a gable at the left. The ground floor is abutted by a single-storey brick extension with a flat roof built around 1965, comprising a timber glazed door with sidelight under a rosemary tile canopy supported on painted timber brackets, a modern double sliding door, and a single-storey projecting bay to the right. The left side extends to first floor in line with the one-and-a-half-storey gable, comprising a timber framed glazed conservatory with red terracotta scalloped roof tiles and four roof lights. The west elevation contains a single off-centre window at the left and a gabled dormer at the centre of the first floor.

The property is located to the west of River Road with an enclosed yard to the west and garden to the south. Conway Lane to the north is accessed via decorative cast-iron gates supported on decorative cast-iron piers, contemporary with the lodge. The east boundary is enclosed by a plinth wall surmounted by decorative cast-iron railings and hedging, with a brick pillar at the south surmounted by a pyramidal pier.

The cottage has considerable historical significance through its connections with the Charley and Barbour families. Conway House, of which this was the gate lodge, was built by Edward Charley of the prominent linen manufacturing family. In 1852, William Charley of Seymour Hill offered his younger brother Edward land from his estate to build a house, which was named Conway after the Marquess of Hertford, who also held the title Lord Conway. Griffith's Valuation (1856-64) lists the house as Edward Charley's residence, leased from the Marquis of Hertford and valued at £105 for house and outbuildings. Edward Charley died in 1868, leaving the house to his widow Catherine. Following her death, Conway was sold in 1892 to John D Barbour of Barbour's Linen Threads, who lived there until his death in 1901. The house then passed to his son, Sir John Milne Barbour, who may have been responsible for commissioning the new gatehouse. Sir John Milne Barbour died in 1951, after which the house became a hotel before eventual demolition. The lodge is considered one of the most ornate of Henry Hobart's executed works—a more elaborate variant of a contemporary gate lodge at Lurgan Park, County Armagh, also designed for John D Barbour. Original drawings survive, though they are neither signed nor dated.

Despite extensions to the south, the building retains most of its original external features and remains a good example of Arts-and-Crafts architecture of considerable architectural and historical significance, with a setting that enhances its character.