Barbican Gate

The Barbican gate-lodge is built into the estate wall at the end of an old stone bridge spanning the Glenarm River.

It was commissioned in 1823 by Edmund Phelps, the second husband of Anne Catherine, Countess of Antrim, suo jure, who inherited the estate when her father, the 6th Earl, died without male issue.

The architect William Vitruvius Morrison built it using local, coursed, rubble basalt and red ashlar sandstone dressings – and he designed it along similar lines to one he had created for Borris House in County Carlow.

The Barbican gate lodge has recently been restored by the Irish Landmark Trust and is used as a holiday rental. Inside, a narrow turret staircase leads onto a roof terrace overlooking the surrounding countryside.