North Gate, North Street, Carrickfergus, Co. Antrim, BT38 7AE

North Gate

North Street, Carrickfergus, Co. Antrim

The North Gate is a seventeenth-century Elizabethan gate of considerable historical importance, being the sole surviving visible gate of Carrickfergus's former substantial town wall circuit. The structure remains in State Care.

Built between 1608 and 1620 and dated to 1608, the gate was substantially restored and re-dated in 1911. It is constructed of ashlar sandstone with dressed soffits. The gateway comprises two arched openings: a round-headed vehicular entrance arch on the main elevation and a lower pedestrian arch on the north side. Both arches feature moulded archivolt springing from torus-moulded imposts, though the pedestrian arch has a non-moulded archivolt. A castellated parapet crowns the structure with central shields to either end—a date to the east elevation and heraldry to the west. One granite carriage bollard stands to each side of the vehicular arch. The pedestrian arch and castellation date from the 1911 restoration. The gate is situated parallel to Albert Road, with the pedestrian arch set to the west elevation of the wall.

Historical records indicate Carrickfergus was formerly entered by four gates. According to James Boyle's Ordnance Survey Memoirs of 1840, the North Gate was the only survivor even then, having previously been known as Spittal Gate. Boyle recorded it in good condition as a circular arched gateway 13 feet high and 11 feet wide, surmounted by a battlemented summit with a total height of 19 and a half feet. However, George Emerson writing in 1848 described it as standing but in bad repair. By 1886, Alexander Mitchell and William Stewart petitioned the Carrick Grand Jury for its removal, arguing it was a public obstruction with no architectural merit and impeded traffic, particularly from the newly developed railway station traffic due to its narrow span. The gate survived these objections and underwent its major restoration in 1911. Originally, the gate would have been protected by a ditch and enclosed by drawbridges.