Castle — Lodge Demesne West

In a flat valley floor, with land rising to N, in good grassland. The Tifeaghna River flows NW-SE immediately SW of the house. There are good views in all directions. Indicated on the Down Survey (1655-6) parish map as, 'a stone house called the Lodge' and the accompanying terrier records, 'on the Parke of Ballin there is a stone house in repaire'. Carrigan (1905, vol. 2, 333) describes it as, 'a square building of no great consequence, though of considerable height; apparently it cannot be assigned to an earlier date than the close of the 16th century'. A late 16th/early 17th-century three-storey house with probable attic level built of roughly coursed rubble masonry with external rough cast render. It is aligned NE-SW and only the SW gable (ext. L 7.4m; int. L 6m) survives with the W angle and a short length of the NW (int. L 1.3m; wall T 0.5m) return and the S angle with a short length of the SE wall (ext. L 1.7m; int. L 1.05m; wall T 0.9m) return. A lean-to farm building has been built on the NE side, against and incorporating the surviving wall. Externally the chimney projects (L 3.3m; D 0.3m) out from the SW wall, narrowing slightly as it rises. Surviving features in the SW wall include a large segmental-headed fireplace (Wth 2.5m; H 1.25m) at ground-floor level, the arch consisting of dressed voussoirs. Within the NW wall of the fireplace there is a wall oven. The first and second floors were carried on wooden floors, the corbels supports for which project from the SW wall, with opposing beam-holes at the SW end of the NW and SE walls. At first-floor level there is a large blocked-up flat-headed window at the S end of the SW wall, with a cut limestone surround with an external chamfer and some survival around the upper portion of the surrounding external band of smooth plaster. The lower W jamb and sill are missing. Also at first-floor level there are two polished limestone fireplaces (Wth c. 1.2m) in the SW wall, both appear to have flat joggle-jointed lintels with curving springing and an external chamfer. One fireplace is c. 1.3m from the SE wall and the other is c. 0.3m from the NW wall, this would suggest that the internal space at this end of the house was divided into two chambers. At second-floor level there is a large opening at the S end of the SW wall which has been partially blocked up and a smaller window inserted. There are no other features in this wall. At attic level the external wall is thinner, the flooring and internally projecting chimney breast resting on the rebate formed by the wider wall below. The roof is steeply pitched with the set-back for the roof being well preserved. The apex is surmounted by a large rectangular chimney stack, the internal face of which appears to have been partially broken out and repaired. Compiled by: Jean Farrelly Date of revised upload: 24 July 2018