gate lodge

Detached L-plan two-bay single-storey gate lodge, built c.1860, having gabled breakfronts to front (north) and west elevations, and catslide-roofed open porch to re-entrant corner. Now disused. Hipped slate roof, cut limestone chimneystack, timber eaves and cast-iron rainwater goods. Rendered walls, fluted pilaster buttresses, channelled render walls to porch. Square- and round-headed openings, painted masonry sills, all blocked. Cast-iron gate adjoining west elevation.

This former gate lodge is small in scale yet well-proportioned and attractively positioned at the corner of Military Road and Irwin Street, forming a focal point on the streetscape and part of a group with the gates to the Royal Hospital Kilmainham, to the west. Subtle decorative render, such as the fluting and channelling, provides decorative interest and a contrast to the finely-carved limestone chimneystack. Although no longer in use, it retains much of its original form and character. Was used as a machine gun post by British troops during the 1916 Rising.