Home | Heritage at Risk in Northern Ireland

Heritage at Risk(v1.0)

HB Ref No:
HB13/11/046

Address
Lodge at Benburb Bridge 180 Maydown Road Benburb Dungannon Co. Tyrone

Townland:
Benburb

Status:
Currently at Risk

Listing Grade:
B2

HARNI Number:
HARNI 13/11/005

Conservation Area:
No

Condition:
Poor

Industrial Archeology:
No

Occupancy:
Vacant

Vernacular:
No

Degree of Risk:
High

Thatched:
No

Availability:
Unknown

Monument:
No

Current Building Use:
Residential Home

Derelict:
Partially

Description

'Detached three-bay, one-storey, rectangular-plan gate lodge, built c.1830s, with later corrugated iron roof abutment to north elevation. Walling is a mixture of undressed limestone and sandstone with occasional cementitious mortar. In the late 18th or (more likely) the early 19th century a dwelling – ‘Castle Cottage’ – was built within the bawn, probably to act as the agent’s residence for the Powerscourt estate. On the face of it, it would seem likely that the lodge was built to serve the back entrance this house - as one would expect of a gentry residence, but as already mentioned the drive that lead from it does not appear to have served the castle, but the mill – or at least had come to do so by 1833. Seven years later the entire Benburb estate was sold to Belfast businessman, James Bruce, who in the following decade built the present red brick manor house to the north-east of the old castle site. The lodge appears to have been vacated c.1980. The lodge is in a poor condition with vegetation growing in the guttering and slipped slates visible.