Gate lodge in Dukesmeadows

Detached single-bay two-storey gate lodge, built 1845; dated 1849, on a square plan; two-bay single-storey return (east). Now disused. Roofs not visible behind parapets with cast-iron hopper and downpipes. Coursed or snecked tooled limestone walls with battlemented parapet on tooled cut-limestone beaded consoles having cut-limestone chamfered coping; coursed or snecked tooled limestone walls (east) with battlemented parapet on tooled cut-limestone beaded stringcourse having cut-limestone chamfered coping. Square-headed window openings in bipartite arrangement, drag edged tooled cut-limestone flush block-and-start surrounds having chamfered reveals with hood mouldings framing timber casement windows behind iron mesh panels. Square-headed door opening (east), drag edged tooled cut-limestone flush block-and-start surround having chamfered reveals with hood moulding framing timber boarded door. Square-headed window openings in bipartite arrangement (east), drag edged tooled cut-limestone flush block-and-start surrounds having chamfered reveals with hood mouldings framing timber casement windows behind iron mesh panels. Square fronted.

A gate lodge erected to designs attributed to Charles Frederick Anderson (1802-69) of Cork (Dean 2016, 216) representing an important component of the mid nineteenth-century built heritage of Kilkenny with the architectural value of the composition confirmed by such attributes as the compact plan form; the construction in a blue-grey limestone demonstrating good quality workmanship; the elegant bipartite glazing patterns; the neo-medieval "balistraria"; and the battlements echoing the turreted skyline of Kilkenny Castle looming overhead. NOTE: A panel 'INSCRIBED [1885] BY ALDERMAN [William] O'DONNELL' commemorates Alderman Robert Cane (d. 1858) 'WHO DURING HIS SECOND YEAR OF MAYORALTY IN 1849 DEVOTED HIS SALARY TO THE ERECTION OF THIS LODGE', however, the accuracy of the inscription has been disputed with John Hogan (----) claiming that 'in A.D. 1844 [Cane] was elected the second Mayor of the reformed Corporation of Kilkenny and expended during his year of office the fees of his mayoralty on the erection of…the castellated gate-house of the Canal-walk' (Hogan in The Journal of the Royal Historical and Archæological Association of Ireland 1882, 250). The gate lodge was one of several improvements carried out to Canal Walk by a succession of Aldermen of Kilkenny: the adjoining gates installed (1844) by Alderman Edmond Smithwick (d. 1876) no longer survive; a nearby plaque records that Canal Walk was improved (1861) by Alderman Thomas Power (d. 1892).