White gate lodge, Tollymore Park, 38 Hilltown Road, Tollymore Park, Newcastle, Co Down, BT33 0PZ

Picturesque one and a half storey, Tudor Revival gate lodge of 1876 by John Birch, with tiled mansard roof, ‘half timbering’ and lych-gate like porch. The building is set at the NW entrance to Tollymore Park, on the S side of the Hilltown Road, 3 miles W of Newcastle (roughly 1 mile W of Bryansford). The front façade faces roughly S and is symmetrical. To the centre is a lych-gate like porch with steeply pitched tiled gabled roof and decorative barges. The sides of the porch incorporate short benches. The doorway within the porch has a timber sheeted door with bevelled sandstone dressings. To the left of the doorway is a small window with similar surround and unusual frame with margins to upper light. To the right of the doorway is a similar window. The shorter W façade has a central single storey (shallow) canted bay with bracketed overhanging pitched roof and panes to windows as front. Directly above this is a shallow, square, oriel window with three light frame with panes as before, decorative brackets with turned ‘drops’ and an overhanging pitched roof which continues into the main mansard roof. The E façade has a centrally located pair of small windows, as front. To the upper level is a central four pane window, with smaller two pane window to the right. Below the central window is a diamond shaped date panel- ‘1876’. To the centre and left at the rear is a single storey lean-to, whose roof merges with the pitch of the main roof. Like the lower half of the façade of the main house, the façade of this lean-to is in rubble, but to the N side much of it is in brick, presumably because the window openings have been altered. This face now has three windows of various size, with modern multi-pane timber frames. To the right of the windows is a timber sheeted door. To the short E face of the lean-to is a small two pane window, with a similar window to the W. The lower half of the façade of the house is in dark fieldstone [?basalt] rubble with slightly lighter grey granite quoins. The upper portion of the façade is jettied and finish in (presumably fake) ‘half-timbering’. All sections of the roof are covered in tiles some of which appear to have discoloured. The roof has a slight overhang with exposed rafter ends. Velux window to rear. The ridge tiles are grey-ish coloured with whose to ridge end with finials. Similar ridge tiles to porch, but with pierced decoration to all. Single central granite chimney stack with sandstone panel to front with monogram of the Earl of Roden. Assorted pots to chimney. Cast iron rw goods. Similar timber fence to surrounding garden. Timber gate screen to drive with carved piers, simple gate and matching pedestrian entrance. This gate screen is a later replica of the original.