Tower in estate wall, Hilltown Road, Tollymore Park, near Bryansford, Newcastle, Co Down

Gothick gateway tower set in the estate wall on the north side of Tollymore Park, along the south side of the Hilltown Road, roughly half a mile west of Bryansford village. Built around 1780, it is one of a series of gothick follies erected by James Hamilton, 2nd Viscount Limerick and 2nd Earl of Clanbrassil, to adorn his Tollymore Park estate, and was probably influenced by the designs of his friend Thomas Wright of Durham.

The tower is square in plan, approximately 2.5 metres square and 5.5 metres high, and is constructed in fieldstone rubble with a cornice. It is capped with a tall pyramidal spire decorated with bap stones to each face and finished with a granite cap and ball finial. The north and south faces each have pointed arch recesses with a springing course and bap stones either side of the arch. These recesses represent the original pedestrian gateway through the estate wall, though the opening on the north side has since been filled in with rubble. The east and west faces are abutted by the estate wall and each has stepped flying buttresses. Grass is currently growing out of the base of the spire.

Locally the structure is known as the Cut-throat Tower, a man having apparently cut his own throat within the gateway.

The wider history of Tollymore Park traces back to the late medieval period, when Tollymore and the surrounding townlands were under the lordship of the Magennis family of Upper Iveagh. In 1611, Brian MacHugh Magennis received a royal grant confirming his ownership of seven and a half townlands in the area from King James I. The estate remained in the Magennis male line until around 1685, when Bernard Magennis died childless and the property passed to his sister Ellen, who was married to William Hamilton. On Ellen's death the estate passed to their son James, and his son — also named James, who inherited in 1701 — was created Viscount Limerick in 1719 and Earl of Clanbrassil (second creation) in 1728.

This first James, popularly known as Lord Limerick, began transforming Tollymore into a naturalistic landscape demesne around 1720. He enclosed much of the land as 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 work on a larger house, probably taking 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, noted that Lord Limerick had completed two rooms of his new "pretty lodge" by that date and had also built "a thatch'd open place to dine in" on the south side of the Shimna River. The Clanbrassil Barn was added just to the north of the house in 1757, with the Horn Bridge built around the same time to the south.

Lord Limerick died in 1758 and was succeeded by his son James, the 2nd Viscount and 2nd Earl, who extended the new house and continued his father's tree planting. In the 1780s he erected the Barbican Gate at the eastern entrance to the park, the gothick gate at the Bryansford entrance, the hermitage, the gothick follies and steward's lodge on the Hilltown Road — including this tower — and a number of bridges within the park: Ivy Bridge, Parnell's Bridge, and Foley's Bridge, the last named after his wife Grace Foley. These additions, like those of his father, appear to have been influenced by Thomas Wright, and together with the planting made Tollymore one of the most admired estates in Ireland. Bernard Scalé's map of 1777 illustrates the picturesque character of the park during this period, showing a rolling landscape with extensive planting, meadows, rivers, streams, and woodland walks. An advertisement in the Belfast News-Letter of 26 April 1785 offered lodgings in Bryansford village with a "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 praised the wholesome air and the herbage on which the goats fed, noting that the area was 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, 2nd Earl of Roden, inherited the estate in 1802 and built the Bryansford and Barbican gate lodges (the latter now demolished), as well as an obelisk monument to the east of the house in memory of his second son James, who died prematurely in 1812. The 2nd Earl and his successor Robert, 3rd Earl of Roden, 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 erected around the same time. The 3rd Earl also constructed a water-powered saw mill within the demesne and in 1865 added another small lodge to the east. He enlarged Tollymore House itself by adding an extra storey to the wings and a tall French château-style roof — described as somewhat incongruous — to the original central block.

Tollymore Park remained in Roden family ownership 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. It has continued to be developed for timber production, recreation, conservation and education purposes. Although the house itself has gone, the majority of the park's 18th- and early 19th-century gates, bridges and lodges have survived.