sluice/sluice gate

Freestanding single-bay single-storey sluice house, built c.1838, set on man-made dam enclosing former reservoir. Roofless, with tooled stone eaves course over rock-faced rusticated limestone walls with rusticated quoins. Square-headed door opening having rusticated limestone lintel. Pair of square-plan pits to interior, and with tooled limestone walls, cast-iron brackets and gate controls over each. Channel to rear of sluice gate with double-span entrance feeding water to base of internal pits, with round arches having tooled limestone voussoirs, rock-faced rusticated spandrel walls, flanked by rock-faced rusticated stone wings, dressed stone coping throughout. Ruins of sluice-gate keeper's cottage to north of dam.

This sluice is of considerable technical interest, having been built to regulate the supply of water from the Quig Lough Reservoir to the Ulster Canal. This canal faced constant difficulties in keeping sufficient water in the canal, as it was lost through lock arrangements as well as natural leakage. Quig Lough had a relatively small capacity, which resulted in shortages, particularly in the summer months. Although the roof, door and some of the internal machinery, which was employed to lift a gate at the base and release water from the reservoir, is absent, the site retains some cast-iron workings and much of its massing and form. The topography to the rear of the structure, showing the former location of the reservoir, provides contextual interest to this socially and technically significant site.