Shanbally Castle

Detached cruciform-plan single-storey former gate lodge, dated 1914, having three-bay elevations, lean-to entrance porch to south-east corner whose roof continues to cover area to front of door, and having recent flat-roofed single-storey extension to north. Now in use as house. Pitched slate roof with carved timber bargeboards, timber battened eaves to oversailing barges, with carved limestone corbels, and rendered chimneystacks, central with panel motif. Coursed snecked limestone walls with limestone plinth and having carved limestone date plaque with 'Carrick Knot' motif to east gable. Square-headed openings with cut limestone label-mouldings, chamfered sills and having timber casement windows with small panes, triple-light to south and east elevations. Square-headed door opening with half-glazed timber panelled door, set in square-plan porch, having blocked window to south elevation, and roof to front of doorway supported at corner on chamfered timber post on dressed limestone plinth. Sited at former entrance to now-demolished Shanbally Castle, with quadrant entrance gateway having rendered plinths to cast-iron spear-headed railings and rendered piers with chamfered corners and moulded plinths and caps.

The steeply-pitched roofs, multiplicity of gables, small window panes and snecked masonry show the influence of the picturesque style on this early twentieth-century building. A former gate lodge, it and the imposing entrance to what is now a public road is a reminder of the now demolished Shanbally Castle and its demesne. They form an interesting group and add architectural and artistic interest to the roadscape.