Survey Data
Reg No
30410017
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Artistic, Historical, Technical
Original Use
Gates/railings/walls
Date
1780 - 1800
Coordinates
184859, 219717
Date Recorded
23/11/2009
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Freestanding limestone triumphal arch gateway, dated 1782, erected c.1790, formerly serving Belview or Lisreaghan House. Comprising tripartite screen with round arched central vehicular opening, flanked by square-headed pedestrian entrances, with recessed blank cut-stone screen walls connecting to pedimented advanced single-bay single-storey pavilions concealing and being gable ends of pair of opposing gate lodges. Lodges are two-storey and three-bay to gorund and two-bay to first floor, with three-bay single-storey addition to southern lodge. Triangular pediment and attic to central bay, with cut and tooled cornice, urn to apex, carved sculpted armorial plaque to pediment, inscribed dated plaque to attic, with flanking carved sphinxes to copings above pedestrian entrances. Cut-stone voussoirs to central arch, and lintels to pedestrian entrances, and having raised cut-stone keystones and impost course to all entrances. Lunette niches with cut-stone voussoirs and sills above pedestrian entrances. Hipped slate roofs to lodges partly concealed by pediments, with dressed chimneystacks. Pitched slate roof to addition to south lodge. Cut coursed stone walls to gateway elevations of lodges, rubble stone walls to other elevations. Round-arched recess to centre of gateway elevation of lodges, with cut-stone voussoirs and keystone, round-headed window opening having cut-stone lintels and sills, and eight-over-four pane timber sliding sash windows, with fanlights over lintel stones. Square-headed window openings to front elevations of lodges, with cut-stone sills and timber sliding sash windows, three-over-three pane to first floor and six-over-six to ground floor, including addition. Square-headed door openings with timber battened doors. Small yards to front of lodges with rubble stone boundary walls.
Appraisal
An eyecatching landmark which uses the Triumphal Arch motif to commemorate the Volunteers and their role in the establishment of Grattan's parliament in 1782. Walter Lawrence, of Belview or Lisreaghan, erected the gate at the west end of the demesne before his death in 1796. It is still locally known as The New Gate, and spans what is now a public road. Lawrence had formed the Belview Volunteers, a very active group in the Connaught Volunteers led by Lord Clanricarde. The Latin inscription can be translated as 'Liberty after a long servitude was won on 16th April, 1782 by the armed sons of Hibernia, who with heroic fortitude, regained their ancient laws and established their ancient independence.' The monumental nature of the gateway ensures that it is one of the more remarkable historic structures in County Galway. It is a careful architectural set-piece in an appropriate classical style. The device of integrating the gable ends of a pair of lodges into the composition adds considerable interest, and the quality of design and of stone carving is clearly evident and is the work of skilled eighteenth-century craftsmen. The gateway was recently restored from a ruinous condition.