Barbican Lodge, Glenarm Castle, Glenarm Demesne, Glenarm, Ballymena, Co Antrim, BT44 0AJ

Barbican Lodge (popularly, if erroneously, known as the Barbican Gate) is a large, three-storey late medieval / Tudoresque style tower gate lodge built in 1824–25 to designs by the architect William Vitruvius Morrison. It stands at the eastern entrance to the demesne of Glenarm Castle and is approached from Castle Street via a bridge of 1713 spanning the Glenarm River. The building is constructed in squared basalt with red sandstone dressings and in-out quoins throughout, and is equipped with a full complement of romantic medieval accoutrements: castellated battlements with Irish castellations, machicolations carried on corbelled stone brackets, a round stair tower, arrow loops, and mock portcullises. Its tree-lined setting is completed by tall flanking battlemented walls extending to the north and south, terminating in corner towers of considerably plainer character.

The late medieval and Tudoresque styling was deliberately chosen to complement Glenarm Castle itself, which Morrison was simultaneously remodelling along similar lines. The gate keeper — who lived in the two-storey gabled wing to the north — was the last occupant in this role, one Billy Charlie McAuley, known as 'Wee' Billy Charlie, who left the premises in 1945. In 2003 the building was leased to the Irish Landmark Trust for 99 years, who converted the interior to two holiday let apartments.

The lodge replaces a smaller tower shown on this site in Thomas Milton's 1783 illustration of the castle. Flanking walls are also depicted in that illustration, though they are much lower than those standing today — reaching only to bridge parapet level — and were probably no more than retaining walls at that date. The bridge itself was built in 1713 at a cost of £100, replacing an earlier bridge of 1682 that had been swept away in a flood. It carried all passing traffic — the main road from Larne, leading north from what is now The Vennel and Castle Street, across the Glenarm River and on to what is now the Straidkilly Road — until 1813, when the present Glenarm Bridge was erected a short distance to the north.

The front, east-facing elevation is composed of a central square three-storey tower, flanked to the north by a much smaller two-storey gabled wing (the former gate keeper's lodge) and to the south by a four-storey circular stair tower with a castellated parapet. At the centre of the ground floor of the east façade is a large Tudor arched carriage opening with sandstone dressings, a moulded dripstone, and decorative label stops. The arch is filled with timber-sheeted double doors fitted with studs and strap hinges. Within the thickness of the wall is a mock portcullis, its 'portcullis' shown as if withdrawn, with only its lower extremities visible. The carriage arch is flanked by smallish sandstone-dressed buttresses with an unusual knobbly rustication.

Directly above the arch is a decorative relief panel bearing the Antrim coat of arms, surmounted by an inscription reading: 'With the leave of God this castle was built By Sir Randle McDonnel Knight Erle of Antrim Havinge to His wife Dame Aellis O'Nill in the yeare of Our Lord 1636'. This panel is a remnant of the original 17th-century house. To either side, and slightly above the panel, are two tall narrow semicircular arch-headed windows with sandstone dressings. At second-floor level, at the centre, is a large window of three semicircular arch-headed lights, all sandstone dressed, with what appear to be metal frames or security grilles. A small arrow loop sits to either side of this window. The elevation — as on all sides — is topped with battlements formed as machicolations, the overhang supported on corbelled stone brackets. Directly above the second-floor window, the machicolation is shaped as an elliptical arch. The castellations themselves incorporate arrow loops.

The north elevation is largely occupied by the small two-storey gabled wing. The west face of this wing has a small semicircular-headed window to the left on the ground floor, with an arrow loop to the right on the first floor, both sandstone dressed. The north, gabled face has a two-light flat-arched window at the centre of the ground floor, and a small semicircular arch-headed window to the left of centre at first-floor level, dressed as before. The east face has an arrow loop to the right at first-floor level and a similar opening at the centre of the ground floor, though this last could not be fully observed as much of the face was obscured by ivy at the time of inspection. The wing has a slated roof, castellated parapets, and crow steps to the gable.

The north façade of the main building, above the wing, has a chimneybreast that projects at second-floor level and is supported on stone corbels and console brackets. This rises above battlement level into a stack carrying three tall square stone chimney pots set corner to corner in Tudor fashion. Machicolations extend to either side of the chimneybreast; that to the right has a semicircular soffit. Just below the machicolations are two arrow loops, one to either side of the chimneybreast.

On the south elevation, the four-storey circular stair tower to the right carries a series of small semicircular arch-headed rising stair windows, all sandstone dressed, and is topped with a castellated parapet as elsewhere. The base of the battlement has a projecting bull-nosed string course. To the left of the tower, in the main structure, is a semicircular arch-headed window at ground-floor level, dressed as before. The machicolations to this side are stepped.

The west elevation, like the east, has an open Tudor carriage arch with mock portcullis — though here the portcullis gate itself is missing. This arch is flanked by large reducing buttresses that rise to merge with the machicolations. The soffit of the central portion of the machicolations is formed as a pair of semicircular arches. Just below these arches, at second-floor level, are two narrow semicircular-headed windows dressed as before. At first-floor level is a large three-light mullioned window with sandstone dressings and a badly broken moulded dripstone; each light appears to have a metal frame or security grille, matching the large window on the east elevation. Below this window is a decorative sandstone panel inscribed: 'This gateway was built and the castle restored by Edmund McDonnell Esquire and Anne Catherine His wife, in Her own right Countess of Antrim and viscountess of Dunluce A.D. 1825'. Within the carriage archway, a semicircular-arched door is set to either side, each studded with coach bolt heads. The ceiling of the archway is a stone barrel vault supported on dressed stone ribs.

Windows throughout appear to be largely plainly glazed, with most lights fixed.

A high rubble wall extends to the north and south from the lodge, following the line of the Glenarm River. Much of this wall on either side of the lodge is battlemented with Irish castellations as described above. Some 140 metres to the north, adjacent to Glenarm Bridge, the wall terminates in a square two-storey tower built in an unadorned Irish tower house style, with castellations and arrow loops. Some 50 metres to the south, at a slight bend in the river, stands a further similar but much smaller tower. The wall continues a further 60 metres to the south and terminates in the largest of the corner towers: square, three storeys, battered, and with a crow-stepped wall enclosing a narrow stairway that drops down to the lower garden level. Each tower has a castellated battlement and arrow loops. To the west of the northernmost tower, the wall turns along the Straidkilly Road. This section is considerably less imposing than the river frontage — much lower, without battlements or castellations, and topped with rendered coping now partly covered in moss.