Lodge and gatescreen, 86 Larne Road, Red Hall, Ballycarry, Larne, Co Antrim

Lodge and Gatescreen, 86 Larne Road, Red Hall, Ballycarry

This is a Victorian building of distinct style and proportion in a castellated Tudor style, probably built for John McAuley, who purchased the Redhall estate in 1869, and therefore likely dating from the 1870s or 1880s. It appears on the Ordnance Survey map of 1902 but not on that of 1858. The architect is not known, though the design may loosely follow a castellated gate lodge published by J.C. Loudon in his pattern book Cottage, Farm and Villa Architecture of 1833. The building is of local interest as the principal entrance to a large country house and its estate, and retains most of its original external features, though its original appearance has been affected by the addition of a modern extension.

Overall Form and Materials

The lodge is two storeys, asymmetrically planned, and built of conjoined flat-roofed blocks in random rubble basalt with red sandstone dressings to windows, cornices, and crenellated parapets. The base of all original walls has two courses that are battered. A pair of gate piers and a small single-storey detached block stand to one side, and a modern two-storey extension finished in cream painted smooth cement render has been added to the other. Some crenellations have been newly replaced.

East Elevation (Main Facade)

The main facade faces east towards the road, though the entrance doorway is in the rear (west) elevation. The east front is composed, from left to right, of a single-storey porch at the south-east corner extending to the left, a single-storey crenellated block projecting forward and one window wide, a two-storey crenellated block one window wide set behind it, an engaged octagonal tower three storeys high at the north-east corner, and the modern two-storey extension extending further to the right of the tower.

Windows to the main two-storey block and the forward-projecting single-storey block have block dressings with chamfered edges and a drip moulding of Tudor Revival type. Each window is rectangular timber, divided by a mullion and transom into two lower fixed lights and two smaller bottom-hung vents. The window in the porch has a similar surround but is narrower and lacks the drip moulding; its glazing is fixed leaded translucent glass. The octagonal tower has similar windows, one to each storey on the front face. Cast iron downpipes with moulded hoppers are positioned in the corners to each side of the forward-projecting block. The parapet to the porch has a deep frieze with projecting square panels and a new ball finial at its left-hand extremity.

The modern extension, which is excluded from the listing, extends from the right-hand side of the octagonal tower. It is preceded by a storey-high basalt wall surmounted by a new concrete cill carrying a large canted bay window — timber framed with plate glass in a modern style — above which the extension rises to a full two storeys with cream painted smooth cement render. The bay window has a wooden fascia and soffit at its head, with a cast iron gutter and downpipe. The roof over the main part of the extension is slated in regular courses that appear to be asbestos slates; a shallower pyramidal roof of similar slating covers the taller block of the extension. A cast iron gutter sits on a painted wooden fascia, and the rendered frieze of the wall below is decorated with projecting square panels in imitation of the original porch block's frieze. A rectangular timber ledged door containing a glazed panel, set in a simply moulded surround, sits at ground floor level to the right of the bay. A rectangular timber window with a fixed light and top-hung vent, in a similar surround with an unpainted concrete cill, occupies the canted side face of the bay, partly hidden by a curving screen wall.

South Elevation

The south face shows, from left to right: the main two-storey crenellated block, one window wide, with a single-storey porch projecting forward at its right-hand corner containing two windows; and a blank single-storey block set back behind the porch to the right. The windows of the two-storey block match those described for the east elevation, except that there is a shallow Gothic relieving arch over the lower window. The porch windows also match those previously described, and are symmetrically placed one to each side of a projecting sandstone pilaster of the main gateway. New ball finials sit at each extremity of the parapet.

West Elevation (Rear)

The west elevation shows, from right to left: the porch containing the main entrance doorway — a rectangular ledged timber door set in a stop-chamfered sandstone surround with curved top corners, with a robust iron door knob and letterbox, and a modern metal lamp fixed to the wall to the right. Projecting forward to the left is the main two-storey block, one window wide at ground floor, as described previously, with a relieving arch. Above the ground-floor window at first-floor level is a large blank square sandstone panel set in a window surround without drip moulding. A cast iron downpipe stands to the left of the window and panel. The crenellated parapet here steps up at its left-hand extremity to form a chimney, with a sandstone cornice and crenellated capstones, and two tall terracotta pots of octagonal section with moulded caps. The rear of the octagonal tower, with its cast iron hopper and downpipe, is visible behind the main block. The new two-storey extension in painted smooth render continues to the left in two stages. The lower stage has a shallow pitched slated roof, cast iron gutter and downpipes, and two windows. The taller stage to the left has a pyramidal hipped roof slated in the same manner, with a cast iron gutter and downpipe, a painted wooden eaves fascia with projecting square panels in the frieze below, and one window to each floor — each a rectangular timber window with two top-hung vents over fixed lights, set in a simple projecting render surround with an unpainted concrete cill.

North Elevation

The north elevation shows, from right to left: the tall modern two-storey extension, one window wide to each floor, detailed as described for the west elevation except that the upper window does not have top-hung vents. Progressively set back to the left are the modern canted bay window, the octagonal tower with one narrow window to each storey on this face, and the blank side wall of the original single-storey block facing the road.

Gateway and Detached Block

Extending to the south of the lodge is a gateway comprising two central square piers to the main driveway, with smaller pedestrian entrances to each side where shallow moulded pilasters project from the lodge wall and from a small single-storey crenellated block to the south. The central piers are built of coursed blackstone ashlar with red sandstone weathering to the offset base and moulded sandstone tops; one pier retains its swept cap and ball finial, while the other has lost its finial. The engaged piers to the pedestrian entrances are of red sandstone. No gates remain.

The single-storey detached block to the south is of similar detailing and materials to the main lodge. It has one narrow window to the east face, with glazing missing, and a similar doorway to the west face as that of the main lodge, though the rectangular timber ledged door is now badly damaged, unhinged, and lying inside the building. The roof is of concrete laid over rusted corrugated iron. The floor is of concrete, and the walls are plastered over the stonework, with red brick dressings to openings.

To the north and south extremities of the lodge, gateway, and detached block are curved screen walls of random rubble blackstone with rough-hewn copings of crenellated pattern, ending in square piers. Some walling to the northern screen has been newly rebuilt.

Setting and Surroundings

The area in front of the lodge is gravelled; the area in front of the detached block is compacted hardcore. Each area is bordered at the front by large basalt boulders. To the rear of the lodge, gravel is contained by new concrete kerbing, which fringes an open stream to the rear, with rough garden land to the north. The building stands facing the main road as the principal entrance to a large country house and its estate, in a very rural area surrounded by open agricultural land on each side and to the front, and seen against an immediate background of mature trees.