Castle Leslie

Detached three-bay single-storey complex-plan limestone-built Jacobean-style gate lodge, built c.1878, two-bay projection to north-east-facing entrance elevation and one-bay projection with dormer window to rear. Now in use as house. Pitched slate roof with red clay-ware sawtooth ridge cresting, ashlar chimneystacks with carved string courses and cornices, carved curvilinear gables to all elevations and over entrance, having carved stone finials. Square-profile cast-iron rainwater goods with decorative brackets and hoppers. Squared coursed rock-faced masonry with ashlar dressed quoins and chamfered plinth course. Carved limestone Leslie insignia over doorway comprising 'J L', demi-griffin and motto 'GRIP FAST', and carved shields with oak leaves and chain device set into recesses having moulded surrounds. Square-headed transom-and-mullion window openings with block-and-start ashlar surrounds, relieving arches above with rock-faced voussoirs, and with timber windows. Square-headed door opening with block-and-start ashlar surround and moulded reveal, replacement timber door, and flight of cut-stone steps with low cut-stone parapets with arrises to copings. Set inside ornate west entrance gateway of Castle Leslie.

The Jacobean western gate lodge to Castle Leslie shows clear signs of John Lanyon's masterful design and detailing of this small romantic composition. Of complex floor plan, the lodge displays finely executed stone craftsmanship, particularly in its chimney and gable details. The distinctive carved finials are also to be found on the lodge at Kintullagh, Co. Antrim, by the same architects. The lodge and its associated gateway are part of a grouping of demesne structures and features on the Castle Leslie estate and forms a prominent roadside focal point.