Eglantine Gate Lodge, Eglantine Estate, 266 Hillsborough Road, Carbane, Hillsborough, Co. Down, BT27 5RJ

Eglantine Gate Lodge

Former gate screen and gate lodge to Eglantine House, erected around 1845 to the designs of Charles Lanyon, situated on the east side of Hillsborough Road. The gates are no longer in use.

Gate Lodge

The gate lodge is a single-bay, single-storey building with an attic storey, built around 1845. It is cruciform in plan, facing north, with its east side elevation fronting onto Hillsborough Road. The building is fronted in painted render with a tetrastyle gabled portico. A modern timber conservatory has been added to the rear, and a detached garage stands to the southeast, both dating from around 1995.

The roof is cruciform-plan natural slate with a low pitch, black clay ridge tiles, and a central bracketed rendered chimneystack. Replacement metal and plastic rainwater goods are fitted beneath deep overhanging eaves supported by decorative moulded brackets to a continuous string course. Purlin ends to all gables are moulded as eaves brackets with timber fascia finish.

The external walls are painted rendered masonry with a painted masonry plinth course, a continuous plat-band at impost level, and decorative moulded quoins. Round-headed window openings have smooth render surrounds, moulded sills with block supports, and original multi-pane timber sash windows.

The front north elevation features three arch mouldings springing from a pair of Doric pilasters flanking the central door opening. The door is possibly a replacement timber door with six flat panels, surmounted by an original webbed fanlight. The portico comprises three arches with moulded archivolts and scrolled keystones, rising from Doric red sandstone columns at the centre and square piers at either end, all on moulded bases and plinth blocks. The portico floor is laid with stone flags, with an arch to either end and a blind keystoned oculus to the gable above.

The east side elevation has a single-bay gabled projection with an elaborate tripartite window surmounted by a diminutive round-headed window. Round-headed window openings flank the main east elevation; that to the rear end is blocked up to the lower sash.

The gabled south rear elevation has three slender round-headed window openings tied together by a continuous sill and the impost plat-band, with a keystoned oculus to the gable above containing a fixed-pane light.

The west side elevation has a single-bay gabled projection with an oculus to the gable and a round-headed window below. A modern octagonal-plan timber-frame conservatory stands to the right.

Gate Screen

The gate screen consists of a central cast-iron carriage entrance and wicket gates on decorative sandstone piers, abutted by rendered quadrant walls. It was erected around 1845.

The decorative cast-iron double carriage gates are supported on square-plan reticulated sandstone piers on plinth blocks. Each pier features a bracketed and panelled frieze and capstone surmounted by an octagonal block finial. Matching wicket gates stand to either side, supported on similar sandstone piers, though with plain frieze and capstone with no block finial (the south pier may be a replacement).

Painted ruled and lined rendered quadrant walls flank either side, with moulded sandstone coping and scrolled sandstone brackets against the outer piers. A plainer sandstone ashlar pier terminates the quadrant walls to the road, with a further scrolled bracket to each.

Setting

The lodge is positioned on the west side of Hillsborough Road, facing north with its east side elevation behind the rubblestone boundary wall to the former demesne, fronting onto the bitumac avenue. The gate screen is set on a north-south axis slightly to the north of the lodge, facing east onto Hillsborough Road.