Gate pillars, Hilltown Road, Aghacullion, near Bryansford, Newcastle, Co Down

A pair of Gothic Revival gate pillars, constructed around 1780 as part of a series of follies commissioned by James Hamilton, 2nd Viscount Limerick and 2nd Earl of Clanbrassil, to adorn his Tollymore Park estate and its surroundings. The design was probably influenced by the work of Thomas Wright of Durham, a friend of the Limerick family and a significant influence on the gothick features throughout the demesne.

The pillars stand in a low rubble wall on the north side of the Hilltown Road, west of Bryansford village, approximately a mile west of the village, forming the boundary wall of a field to the north of Tollymore Park. The pillars are cylindrical and harled, each topped with a crown-like cornice with rounded cap stones, from which rises a tall conical granite spire. On the south face of each pillar is an arrow-loop-like slit opening. The top half of the spire on the eastern pillar has broken off. A mid-20th century iron gate hangs between the pillars.

The Tollymore Park demesne has a long and layered history. In the late medieval period, the land was held by the Magennis family of Upper Iveagh. In 1611, Brian MacHugh Magennis received a royal grant of seven and a half townlands in the area from King James I. The Magennis male line continued until around 1685, when Bernard Magennis died without children and the estate passed to his sister Ellen, who had married William Hamilton. On Ellen's death, the estate passed to their son James, whose own son James — inheriting in 1701 — was created Viscount Limerick in 1719 and Earl of Clanbrassil (second creation) in 1728.

This first Lord Limerick, popularly known by his earlier title, began transforming Tollymore into a naturalistic landscape demesne around 1720. He enclosed much of the land to create a deer park, undertook large-scale tree planting, built a hunting lodge and the Old Bridge, and rebuilt the parish church at Bryansford — the small estate village to the north of the park, named after his ancestor Brian Magennis. Around 1750 he began construction of a larger house, likely with design advice from Thomas Wright, who had visited Ireland in 1746–47 and stayed at Tollymore Park in September 1746. Dr. Pococke, writing in his Tour of Ireland of 1752, recorded that Lord Limerick had completed two rooms of his new "pretty lodge" and had built "a thatch'd open place to dine in" on the south side of the Shimna River. The Clanbrassil Barn was added just north of the house in 1757, and the Horn Bridge was built around the same time.

Lord Limerick died in 1758 and was succeeded by his son James, the 2nd Viscount and 2nd Earl, who extended the house and continued the planting programme. In the 1780s, this second James erected the Barbican Gate at the eastern entrance to the park, the Gothic gate at the Bryansford entrance, a hermitage, a Gothic steward's lodge on the Hilltown Road, these gate pillars, and several bridges within the park including Ivy Bridge, Parnell's Bridge, and Foley's Bridge — the last named after his wife, Grace Foley. These additions, along with the planting, made Tollymore one of the most admired estates in Ireland. Bernard Scalé's map of Tollymore from 1777 illustrates the picturesque character of the park, showing rolling landscape, extensive planting, meadows, rivers, streams, and woodland walks. An advertisement in the Belfast News-Letter of 26 April 1785 offered lodgings in Bryansford village, drawing attention to the "most pleasing prospect of the Right Hon. Earl of Clanbrassil's much admired demesne, which is beautiful to the sight and extensive to the bounds," and noting that the wholesome air and herbage on which the goats fed made it "much frequented by ladies and gentlemen for the recovery of lost health."

James, 2nd Viscount Limerick and 2nd Earl of Clanbrassil, died without issue in 1798. The park passed to his sister Anne, wife of Robert Jocelyn, 1st Earl of Roden. Their son Robert, the 2nd Earl of Roden, inherited the estate in 1802 and built the Bryansford and Barbican gate lodges, the latter now demolished. He also erected an obelisk monument to the east of the house in memory of his second son James, who died prematurely in 1812. The 2nd and 3rd Earls further developed Bryansford village. A Roman Catholic church was built at the eastern edge of the village in 1820, school houses in 1823 and 1826, and labourers' dwellings and the large dower house known as The Nest were added around the same time. The 3rd Earl also built a water-powered sawmill within the demesne, added a small lodge to the east in 1865, and enlarged Tollymore House itself by adding an additional storey to the wings and a tall French château-style roof to the original central block — an addition considered somewhat incongruous with the rest.

Tollymore Park remained in the hands of the Roden family until 1930, when the 8th Earl sold two thirds of the land to the Ministry of Agriculture for afforestation. The remaining third was purchased by the Ministry in 1940, and during the Second World War Tollymore House and part of the grounds were used by the Army. After the war the house fell into disrepair and was demolished by Lord Roden in 1952. In 1955 Tollymore became the first state forest in Northern Ireland to be designated a Forest Park and was opened to the public. Although the house itself has gone, most of the 18th and early 19th century gates, bridges and lodges have survived and the park continues to be developed for timber production, recreation, conservation, and education. These gate pillars remain in private ownership and continue in their original use as a folly.