The Lodge, 8 Lower Ballinderry Road, Upper Ballinderry, County Antrim, BT28 2EP

The Lodge is a single-storey, two-bay, square-plan gate lodge built in the mid 19th century, formerly serving Oatland Cottage at its principal entrance off the Lower Ballinderry Road in Upper Ballinderry. It retains strong external character relating directly to the materials, proportions and style of the main house it once served, and holds group value with Oatland Cottage as part of the heritage of Lisburn, despite 20th-century alterations to its interior and the addition of a utilitarian single-storey flat-roofed extension.

The building is constructed of coursed rubble basalt with smooth rendered rusticated long-and-short quoins, a projected chamfered plinth course, and a smooth rendered eaves course with cavetto moulding. It is roofed in natural slate with a pyramidal form, leaded hips, and features a centrally located red-brick chimney with moulded cornice course and a single octagonal moulded clay pot. The rainwater goods are cast-iron with semi-circular gutters and circular downpipes.

Windows are 6/6 timber sliding sashes with horns, set in rough red-brick surrounds (painted to appear more regularly shaped) with large rectangular masonry cills. The door is timber, four-panelled, with brass ironmongery and surrounds matching the windows. The principal elevation faces east and is symmetrically arranged with the front door centrally positioned and single windows to either side. The left and right elevations are symmetrically matched, each with two windows. The rear elevation is abutted by a utilitarian flat-roofed, cement-rendered extension dating to around 1960.

The setting includes a boundary treatment comprising wrought-iron gates and robust chamfered piers with plinth and cornice surmounted by a reeded cap, adjoining a curved low-rise matching parapet wall. A garden to the north contains mature trees beyond. The grounds to the main building are located to the east, accessed via a timber vehicular gate, with a lamp standard on the avenue leading to the main house.

Historically, the gate lodge first appears on the third edition Ordnance Survey map of 1900–01, where it is simply recorded as 'Lodge'. The main house, Oatland Cottage, was occupied by members of the Walkington family from at least 1830; Thomas Walkington, the first recorded occupant, owned a number of corn mills in the area. In Griffith's Valuation of 1859, Oatland Cottage was valued at £40. Following a separate valuation in 1889, the gate lodge was assessed at £2 and occupied by Henry Prichard, a local labourer, between 1889 and around 1913. Prichard rented the lodge from Samuel Walkington, who possessed Oatland Cottage from 1874. Census records from 1901 record Prichard as a widower aged 58, living with his daughter Annie Matchett (31) and her two infant children, James Henry (3) and Isaac Matchett (1), both born in Belfast. By the 1911 Census, a third child, William Matchett (8), had been born in Belfast, and Annie Matchett was recorded as a widow. She occupied the house until the end of the Annual Revisions in 1929, following her father's death around 1913. The lessor changed from Samuel Walkington to his relative Maria Walkington around 1903. Census building returns described the gate lodge as a second-class slate-roofed dwelling consisting of between two and three rooms, with no significant changes between 1901 and 1911. Documentary sources suggest the gate lodge was constructed around 1860 during Thomas Walkington's occupation, though construction could have occurred before 1859 when Oatland Cottage was first valued. The lodge continues to be occupied under its current name 'The Lodge'. By 1971, a concrete extension had been constructed to the west side and is now used as a modern garage.