North Gate-Lodge And Gates, Oxenfoord Castle

North Gate-Lodge and Gates, Oxenfoord Castle

Attributed to William Burn, circa 1842. A 2-storey castellated drum lodge with an attached square block (containing a ground floor) and a later L-shaped single-storey extension with attic. The principal structures are built in coursed ashlar with stugged surrounds, base course and band course, while the extension is rubble with a harred rear.

The north (principal) elevation features a central square lodge with an architraved arched doorway containing a heavy boarded door, a band course above, and an architraved castellated pediment surmounting it. To its left is a modern extension; to the right stands the drum-shaped lodge with three regularly placed round-arched slit windows with architraved surrounds and sloping sills, a band course, and an architraved castellated pediment. A coped pillar left of the central window adjoins new wrought-iron entrance gates and brick piers. The modern extension to the left has a coped rubble wall with four regularly placed slit windows and a concealed roofline.

The west elevation shows the drum lodge rear adjoining an ornate wallhead cluster stack with a lower catslide projection. A 2-storey rear section contains a blind door at ground floor and a lancet window above with band course and architraved castellated pediment surmounting. The L-plan modern extension arm has a pair of segmental-arched tripartite windows and a pair of ground floor windows, with paired dormers in the roof to the right return.

The south (rear) elevation displays the squared lodge rear with a replacement glazed door to the right and a bipartite window to the left, band course above. Paired round arch slit windows occupy the first floor with band course and architraved castellated pediment. A further door sits at ground floor left on a projecting stack. The modern extension to the right has timber and glazed entrance with three segmental-arched tripartite windows and three randomly placed Velux windows above.

The east elevation has a single off-centre window to the left with a pair of garage doors to the right; three regularly placed Velux roof lights sit above.

Details include narrow round-headed timber-framed lattice windows to the drum; narrow slit windows to the front of the contemporary extension; large single-pane windows to the rear; and Velux roof lights to rear and sides. A flat roof behind the parapet crowns the drum and square central lodge, while a grey slate mansard roof covers the rear extension. A further stack rises at the arm of the modern extension. Replacement cast-iron rainwater goods are fitted throughout.

The interior was not seen at the time of listing (2002).

Boundary walls comprise dressed coursed ashlar with piended copes and ridging.

Situated on Whitehousemill Road, the lodge is attributed to William Burn, who altered Oxenfoord Castle. Early 20th-century descriptions called it an "ornate structure, castellated in style and in complete harmony with the great house it commands." The lodge lies nearly a mile from the South Lodge. Together with the North Lodge, these formed the formal entrances for castle visitors; the Middle Lodge served general traffic.

Originally, the lodge featured stone waterspouts shaped as cannon barrels and high stone octagonal gatepiers with decorative wrought-iron gates, now lost when the lodge ceased to be inhabited. Previously derelict, the lodge has been renovated to form a private residence.