Dromana Gate is a striking Hindu-Gothic gate lodge and was the entrance to Villierstown and the Dromana estate. Henry Villiers Stuart (Lord Stuart de Decies) inherited the estate in the early part of the 18th century and in 1826 married an Austrian widow known as Theresia Pauline Ott of Vienna. The story goes that while the newlyweds were on honeymoon in Brighton the tenants of the village constructed for them a gate lodge made from timber, covered in canvas and with papier-mâché detailing. While on honeymoon the couple would have no doubt marvelled at the Hindu-Gothic wonder of John Nash’s Royal Pavilion in Brighton, designed and built between 1815-1822, and must have been pleasantly surprised to see the wooden structure on the return from their honeymoon. The couple were so enamoured with the gatehouse that it was later redesigned and rebuilt by the architect Martin Day in 1849. Henry Villiers-Stuart died in 1874 and the gatehouse fell into a state of disrepair in the early part of the 20th century before being restored by the Irish Georgian Society in the 1960s. The gate’s copper-clad dome and minaret-topped posts make this structure incredibly charming and surely one of Ireland’s strangest gatehouses.

GPS: 52.12342, -7.8438

Update 9.6.2022 Thanks to Rose for sending on this fantastic old postcard of Dromana gate