East Lodge to Tamnaharry House, Bridge Road, Newry, Co Down, BT34 2EY

East Lodge to Tamnaharry House

East Lodge is a mid-19th century gate lodge designed by Thomas J Duff of Newry, architect of the main house at Tamnaharry. It stands on the west side of Bridge Road, Newry, and is now derelict. The lodge forms part of Duff's architectural legacy and retains group value as one of two lodges serving Tamnaharry House.

The building is L-shaped, comprising a single storey structure of two bays. It is constructed of smooth cement-rendered granite rubble with rendered brick trim to openings and a chamfered ashlar granite base course to the southwest and southeast elevations. The pitched roof is natural slate (in poor condition) with moulded overhanging eaves and decorative fretted bargeboards to the gables, each featuring trefoil-tailed cusps and a decorative pendant finial to the underside of the apex. The southeast bargeboard is partially gone. A pair of square rendered granite chimney stacks, set at angles on a common ashlar sandstone plinth, rises centrally and is aligned southwest-northeast.

The principal elevation faces southeast to the road and is two bays wide. The right bay advances as a gable with a large central window opening formerly containing three vertical lights, each 2x6 paned with 2x2 paned transoms over each, beneath a moulded stucco drip mould. The left bay contains the main entrance, which was once sheltered within an open porch. The porch roof (lean-to natural slate) is now gone, as are its supporting granite Doric columns, though its decorative bargeboard remains on site. The entrance doorway is set to the left with a door of six raised and fielded panels (3x3) with heavy bolection mouldings. To its right is a window opening with granite cill containing a pair of timber-framed cast-iron casements (now broken), formerly 2x4 paned with 2x2 transoms over each, with render lined to mimic voussoirs above.

The southwest elevation formerly faced the driveway to Tamnaharry House and features a canted bay window with finely dressed granite mullions and moulded cornice, with a shallow lead roof. This bay contains pairs of windows to the front and one on each cheek, formerly 2x6 paned with 2x2 transoms. All other windows throughout the building are similar in type—timber framed with cast-iron lights (now broken)—unless otherwise noted.

The northwest rear elevation contains a narrow window opening to the left of centre, with a small later window opening at a slightly higher level to its left, fitted with moulded timber architrave and granite cill. The northeast elevation is blank.

The threshold of the porch is paved with granite slabs. A pair of rendered square granite pillars with concrete caps fronts the property to the left, from which modern steel gates hang. The driveway, now abandoned, remains tree-lined.

The lodge was designed by Thomas J Duff circa 1840 for Tamnaharry House and first appears on the 1860 Ordnance Survey 6-inch map. It is executed in similar architectural idiom to a lodge Duff designed for Narrow Water Castle around the same time. Historic survey records from 1972 show the building to have been relatively intact, with its cast-iron windows and attractive porch supported on stone Doric columns then still standing. The building was originally listed as North Lodge but has since been delisted and redesignated East Lodge. It stands to the northeast of Tamnaharry House; a second, much-altered gate lodge is situated to the south of the house on Derryleckagh Road.