24A Belfast Road, Carrickfergus, Co Antrim, BT38 8BU

24A Belfast Road is a small, plain, single-storey gate lodge built in 1880–81 to serve Castle Rocklands, a large gentleman's residence whose first occupant was the Reverend James Warwick. Warwick remained there until around 1889, after which both the main house and the lodge passed to William Allen Woodside, who appears to have shared the property with a relative, possibly his brother David Woodside. In 1919 Castle Rocklands was purchased by an R.N. Boyd, who held it until at least 1950. The lodge was extended with flat-roofed additions to the rear and south side during the mid to later 20th century. The adjacent gate screen was altered around 1980 when Belfast Road was widened, and Castle Rocklands itself was demolished in the later 1990s, leaving the lodge currently vacant. The building has no special historic or architectural interest: its original exterior has been altered by inappropriate additions, its interior retains no features of architectural quality, and its setting has been degraded by the road widening and the consequent alteration of the gateway.

The lodge sits behind a high wall on the south side of Belfast Road, on the western outskirts of Carrickfergus. It is a stuccoed hipped-roof structure with later flat-roofed extensions to the rear and south side.

The entrance front, facing east, is symmetrical, with one window to each side of a central doorway. The hipped roof is covered in Bangor blue slates laid in regular courses, with overhanging eaves on a painted stone eaves course, a moulded cast-iron gutter, lead ridge and hips, and two smooth cement-rendered and painted chimneys with moulded cornices and two stub pots each. The external walls are smooth cement-rendered, lined and painted, with moulded quoins to the corners, a moulded projecting plinth, a coved and moulded cornice, and moulded surrounds to the door and windows. The windows are rectangular timber sliding sashes, vertically hung, two-over-one panes with horns, set in recessed frames with projecting stone cills. The entrance doorway has a modern rectangular timber glazed and panelled door surmounted by a plain rectangular fanlight, the fanlight partially blocked by a timber piece mounted with a bulkhead light; the door has a modern metal draught-strip surround, a modern letterbox and escutcheon, and a plain cement screed doorstep.

Set back to the left-hand edge of the main block is a lower flat-roofed extension added later. Its wall is rendered to match the main block, with a projecting plinth but no quoins, and a plain rendered projecting eaves course. It has one rectangular two-light PVC window comprising one fixed light and one side-hung casement, set in plain reveals with a small projecting concrete cill, painted.

The south elevation shows the south gable of the main hipped-roof block, with a flat-roofed projection to the front and the flat-roofed rear return to the west. The main block retains its hipped slated roof as described above, except that clay hip tiles appear to the left-hand side. The walling to each side of the flat-roofed projection is rendered as on the entrance front, including quoins to the corners. There is one window to the left of the projecting block, matching those on the entrance front except glazed two-over-two. The projecting block has a blank south wall containing one small PVC waste pipe; its west wall contains a modern rectangular timber glazed two-panel door with a modern handle and draught strip, set in plain reveals with two rendered steps, and a cast-iron downpipe. The flat-roofed rear return extending to the west of the main block is rendered similarly but without quoins or moulded cornice; it has a large plain projecting painted rendered eaves course, one modern rectangular two-light PVC window in plain reveals with a concrete cill, and one rectangular doorway with a broken timber door and a crude three-pane fanlight above, leading to a covered passage with rendered walls, a cement screed floor and a plastered ceiling, which in turn leads to a small enclosed yard to the north.

The west elevation comprises the rear of the main block with a lower flat-roofed rear return projecting to the right. The main block carries a hipped slated roof as on the entrance front except for clay hip tiles; the wall to the left of the rear return is plain rendered and painted with a moulded and coved cornice, and has one rectangular timber two-over-one sashed window with horns, set in plain reveals with a painted projecting stone cill; PVC cable casing is affixed to this wall. The west elevation of the rear return is a plain cement-rendered wall.

The north elevation of the main block has a hipped slated roof with overhanging eaves, a lead hip to the left, clay hip tiles to the right, and a moulded cast-iron gutter. The original end wall has been faced up to the soffit with artificial stone, obscuring all original render except for small portions of the coved cornice at each extremity; this artificial stone facing continues to each end to form the boundary walling. The north elevation of the rear return, within the enclosed yard, is a plain rendered wall with a plain projecting eaves cornice, a cast-iron downpipe to the right and a cast-iron soil pipe to the left. It contains two windows — one modern rectangular metal and one modern rectangular PVC — in plain reveals with painted concrete cills, and one rectangular tongued-and-grooved timber door with a glazed panel set in a crude timber frame, leading to the rear covered passage.

The building stands within its own grounds, with its north gable adjacent to the pavement at the main road. The entrance front faces a driveway and is set back beyond small grassed areas with flower beds and bushes. Tarmac paths run across the entrance elevation and lead to the main driveway; crazy paving runs along the south elevation with a cement screed area along the south side of the rear return. A small garden to the south is enclosed by a hedge bordering the driveway and the west boundary wall. The west boundary is formed by a basalt rubble wall with a rounded cement coping, except within the yard where it is uncoped; the yard is surfaced in cement screed, and the enclosing wall on the north side of the yard is of modern artificial stone. The east boundary of the site is formed by a modern concrete post-and-wire fence. The north boundary is formed by modern artificial stone walling extending to each side from the north gable of the main block, linked to a basalt gate screen to the east.

The gateway to the main drive consists of a pair of square masonry piers, now without gates, linked to a pair of outer piers by screen walls. The outer pier to the east marks the boundary corner; the outer pier to the west is linked to the entrance front of the building by a lower modern artificial stone wall. The piers are square on plan, built of squared basalt with a hammered finish, with moulded sandstone cornices painted and surmounted by painted ball finials. The screen walls are of basalt rubble with concrete slab copings, and all the masonry has modern reticulated cement pointing. Map evidence suggests that the outer piers were originally placed further to the north and linked to the inner piers via a quadrant wall; they were almost certainly moved to their present position when Belfast Road was widened around 1980. Mature trees line both sides of the main driveway running to the south of the site.