Kilkea Castle

Detached two-bay single-storey rubble stone gate lodge with half-dormer attic, c.1870, with single-bay single-storey gabled open porch and lean-to open veranda to circumference. Refenestrated, c.1995. Gable-ended roof with slate (gabled to porch and to dormer attic window; lean-to to veranda). Clay ridge tiles. Timber eaves on consoles and decorative timber bargeboards. Replacement uPVC rainwater goods, c.1995. Rubble stone walls. Hammer dressed cut-granite quoins to corners. Square-headed window openings. Chamfered stone sills. Hammer dressed cut-granite surrounds. Replacement timber casement windows, c.1995, with false applied leading. Square-headed door opening. Timber panelled door. Open arcade to veranda with timber columns on granite posts having elliptical arches to arcade. Set back from road in grounds shared with Kilkea Castle at entrance to estate. Tarmacadam drive to front.

This gate lodge to the Kilkea Castle estate is a fine, small-scale decorative architectural piece that retains much of its original character. The lodge is contemporary with the late nineteenth-century alterations to the castle, together with a number of further stone buildings in the village of Kilkea, and was part of an extensive building campaign undertaken by the Duke of Leinster. Although composed on a small scale, the lodge is a highly ornate piece and includes decorative features such as the carved timber bargeboards and the open veranda (or loggia). Even structural devices such as the high-pitched roof and the juxtaposition of yellow rubble stone with cut-granite contribute to the presence of the building - the latter is also a fine exercise in polychromy. The lodge remains much as it was when originally built, with the exception of the replacement of fenestration. Set back from the village, the lodge is an attractive and prominent feature on the avenue into Kilkea Castle Demesne.