Knocktoran House

Detached three-bay single-storey gate lodge, built c. 1860, with single-bay addition to west. Now in use as house. Hipped slate roof with rendered chimneystacks and terracotta ridge tiles, lean-to slate roof to addition. Lined-and-ruled rendered walls with recessed bays to front (south). Square-headed window openings with tooled limestone sills. Bipartite one-over-one pane timber sliding sash windows to front elevation. Square-headed window opening to addition, side and rear elevations having replacement timber framed casement windows. Square-headed door opening having replacement uPVC door. Coursed limestone rubble boundary wall with peck dressed piers having wrought-iron pedestrian gate. Entrance to Knocktoran House to south, sweep walls having cast-iron railings terminating in square-profile cast-iron panelled piers with cast-iron double-leaf gates. Rectangular-plan courtyard defined by ranges of outbuildings to east of gate lodge. South-range comprising ten-bay single-storey stable block. Pitched slate roof. Coursed rubble limestone walls, rendered to south elevation. Square-headed window openings with single-pane timber framed windows. Some square-headed loop window openings to rear elevation. Square-headed door-opening, one with rendered windbreak. West range comprising six-bay single-storey south block and two-bay one-and-a-half-storey north block. Joined by wrought iron double-leaf gates. Both buildings having pitched slate roofs and coursed rubble limestone walls with slightly enlarged quoins. Square-headed window openings to south block with replacement uPVC windows. Square-headed rooflights to west slope of roof. Square-headed door openings with timber battened doors and red brick relieving arch over. Red brick relieving arch to north end, west elevation. North block having square-headed window openings with replacement timber framed windows. Elliptical-headed door openings having tooled limestone voussoirs and metal-sheet single-leaf doors. North range comprising five-bay two-storey house with eight-bay single-storey attached outbuilding to west and six-bay single-storey block to east. Hipped slate roof to house with red brick chimneystack. Pitched slate roof to attached buildings. Rendered walls. Square-headed window openings with render sills and recent timber framed windows. Square-headed door openings with timber battened doors.

This gate lodge is associated with Knocktoran House and, together with the nearby outbuildings, serves as a reminder of the range of demesne related activities once associated with the country house in Ireland. The elegant proportions and render detailing are harbingers of the architecture of the country house beyond the gates. The retention of timber sliding sash windows adds further character and maintains historical integrity.