[Extracts from The Gatelodges of Ulster, by J A K Dean, published by the Ulster Architectural Heritage Society in 1994.]
(2): A much visited and admired demesne by intrepid 19th century
travellers. It spread to an island on the Lower Lough Erne, where
the Loftus family moved after deserting the neighbouring Castle
Hume (qv). It was Sir Charles Tottenham who assumed the arms and
name of Loftus when the estates devolved upon him from his uncle.
He was created Marquess of Ely in 1800 and it was his son the
2nd Marquess, John, who set about building what was variously
described as an ordinary or small handsome villa where "...the
situation is most enchanting and fairly entitled to be called
a little Paradise". He employed as his architect the Dubliner
William Farrell to design the new house and two porters' lodges.
On the main Enniskillen-Ballyshannon road impressive entrance
gates and an elegant Classical gate lodge in a design too sophisticated
to have been by Farrell whose domestic architecture is not always
noted for its excellence of proportion. The identity of the real
author of this design is to be found at Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire.
At one of the entrances to the great park is Eagle Lodge, identical
in every respect to the lodge here. This can be explained by the
marriage in 1810 of the 2nd Marquess to Anna Maria daughter of
Sir H W Dashwood who was a close friend of the 5th Duke of Marlborough
and MP for the little town of Woodstock by Blenheim's gates. Eagle
Lodge would date from c.1815 when the architcct Henry Hakewill
was employed by the Churchills. The client was impressed enough
to bring the idea back to he located at Ely Lodge and supervised
by Farrell.
A perfectly symmetrical single storey lodge on a T plan in grey
ashlar below a hipped roof with an extended eaves. The windows
are square paned Georgian in moulded surrounds set into recesses
formed by a plinth, Tuscan pilasters and entablature. Central
to the three bay front elevation is a bow-fronted portico supported
on two Tuscan columns. The circle completed in a recess in which
is the panelled entrance door delightfully flanked by semicircular-headed
niches each of which contains a Classical goddess (something which
Eagle Lodge cannot boast). The rear return and a trio of tapering
chimney pots which rise off the party wall are a plan form and
feature which Farrell was to copy at the other Ely Lodge gate
the two Colebrooke (qv) lodges and probably that to Castle Irvine
(qv) all in Co Fermanagh. Alien extension to the rear. The extensive
gate sweep approach has good ironwork culminating in cut stone
pillars in the form of Greek stellae with tapering recessed panels
and cappings of four-sided pediments. An important entrance its
white ironwork contrasting nicely with the grey ashlar.
Bridge lodge (c.1820):
Architect William Farrell. "The mansion is approached over
a strait of the lough by a handsome bridge, at the end of which
are massive iron gates, well barricaded, and committed to the
custody of a porter." Thus recorded Binns in 1835. These
gates are no longer extant but the pretty little gate lodge survives.
Again Farrell employs the plan form of the main lodge but here
the elevations are dressed up in Tudor Picturesque guise.
Another single storey cottage with a three bay front under a shallow
hipped roof. In stuccoed walls are pretty label moulded window
openings each of which contains a pair of pointed lights with
latticed panes. The central doorway is sheltered below a gabled
canopy supported on two quatrefoil section cluster posts. Characteristic
of this period in the architect's career, the chimney stack rises
from the back wall of the main lodge. The accommodation extends
in a hipped roof structure to the rear. The guttering is carried
on nice cast iron curled brackets. Farrell's house was destroyed
by explosives in 1870, partly to mark the 21st birthday of the
4th Marquess, and never replaced as intended. The stables were
converted into a residence but the family continued as absentee
landlords residing at their main seat, Loftus Hall, Co Wexford.
Both lodges remain well tended.
Refs: Colvin (1978); Bence-Jones (1988); Barrow (1836); Rowan
(1979); Binns (1837).
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