Bellamont House | |
---|---|
Alternative names | Bellamont Forest |
General information | |
Status | Private dwelling house |
Type | House |
Architectural style | Palladian |
Address | Bellamont Forest, Cootehill, County Cavan |
Town or city | Cootehill |
Country | Ireland |
Coordinates | 54°05′12″N7°04′13″W / 54.0868055°N 7.0701729°W |
Elevation | 50 m (160 ft) |
Groundbreaking | 1725 |
Owner | John Manuel Morehart |
Technical details | |
Material | limestone, brick |
Floor count | 3 |
Floor area | 1,032 m2 (11,110 sq ft) |
Grounds | 175.83 ha (434.5 acres) |
Design and construction | |
Architect(s) | Edward Lovett Pearce |
Developer | Coote Family |
Bellamont House (sometimes Bellamont Forest) is a Georgian Palladian-style house set amongst 1,000 acres of grounds in Cootehill, County Cavan, Ireland. The house was completed in 1730 for Judge Thomas Coote and likely designed by his nephew, the architect Edward Lovett Pearce. [1] [2] [3] [4]
It is considered to be one of the finest examples of Palladian architecture in Ireland and was originally loosely modelled on the Villa La Rotonda in Vicenza, Italy. [5] [6] [7]
The house was constructed for Judge John Coote and passed down through the family in 1800 to an illegitimate son of Charles Coote, 1st Earl of Bellomont. The estate was later gambled away by his descendant Captain Richard Coote in 1874 and acquired by Edward Smith. Later Eric Dorman-Smith, grandson of Edward Smith, inherited the property in 1948, on the death of his father, after serving in the British army in both world wars before resigning his Commission in late 1944. Dorman-Smith later changed his name to O'Gowan and became a Republican while allowing the IRA to use the estate during the border campaign in the 1950s. He died in 1969. [8]
In more recent times the property was acquired by a distant relation of the Coote family, Australian interior designer John Coote (former husband of Australian MP Andrea Coote) who purchased the House in 1987 for £500,000 Irish pounds. Coote partially restored the property over the following two decades before dying suddenly in 2012 while the property was for sale. The property was finally sold by a Receiver to an American buyer, John Manuel Morehart in 2015 for €2m with part of the grounds leased to the state-owned forestry company Coillte. [9]
In 2021, Coillte relinquished its leasehold of the forestry element of the estate. [10]
The house is a Palladian style square-plan, four-bay two storey over basement villa set amongst a rolling drumlin landscape. It is faced with red brick with limestone quoins to the ground floor level, and rusticated stone facing to the raised basement level. A protruding Doric entrance portico to the front of the building is also constructed in limestone atop a stone plinth while the broad steps leading up to the villa are sided with ashlar. There are pediments over the ground floor windows with sandstone surrounds and venetian windows to the sides of the property. The property sits on a hill at the highest point in the surrounding area facing mature woodland, pasture, lakes and rivers. [11] [12] [5]
The interior contains marbles busts of various members of the Coote family while the entrance hall is paved with portland stone slabs and contains a coffered elaborate plasterwork ceiling. [13]
The house is approached by a long driveway along Town Lough from the town of Cootehill.
Brigadier Eric Edward "Chink" Dorman-Smith, who later changed his name to Eric Edward Dorman O'Gowan, was an Irish officer whose career in the British Army began in the First World War and closed at the end of the Second World War. In the 1950s, Dorman-Smith became an officer in the Irish Republican Army (IRA).
County Cavan is a county in Ireland. It is in the province of Ulster and is part of the Northern and Western Region. It is named after the town of Cavan and is based on the historic Gaelic territory of East Breffny (Bréifne). Cavan County Council is the local authority for the county, which had a population of 81,201 at the 2022 census.
Palladian architecture is a European architectural style derived from the work of the Venetian architect Andrea Palladio (1508–1580). What is today recognised as Palladian architecture evolved from his concepts of symmetry, perspective and the principles of formal classical architecture from ancient Greek and Roman traditions. In the 17th and 18th centuries, Palladio's interpretation of this classical architecture developed into the style known as Palladianism.
Colonel Sir Reginald Hugh Dorman-Smith, GBE was an Anglo-Irish diplomat, soldier and politician in the British Empire.
Sir Edward Lovett Pearce was an Irish architect, and the chief exponent of Palladianism in Ireland. He is thought to have initially studied as an architect under his father's first cousin, Sir John Vanbrugh. He is best known for the Irish Houses of Parliament in Dublin, and his work on Castletown House. The architectural concepts he employed on both civic and private buildings were to change the face of architecture in Ireland. He could be described as the father of Irish Palladian architecture and Georgian Dublin.
Richard Cassels, also known as Richard Castle, was an architect who ranks with Edward Lovett Pearce as one of the greatest architects working in Ireland in the 18th century. Cassels was born in 1690 in Kassel, Germany. Although German, his family were of French origin and descended from the French-Netherlandish 'Du Ry' family, famous for the many architects among their number. A cousin Simon Louis du Ry designed Schloss Wilhelmshöhe in Kassel.
Lough Key is a lake in Ireland. It is in the northwest of County Roscommon, northeast of the town of Boyle. The lough is believed to be named after a mythical figure named Cé.
Cootehill is a market town and townland in County Cavan, Ireland. Cootehill was formerly part of the neighbouring townland of Munnilly. Both townlands lie within the barony of Tullygarvey.
Coillte is a state-owned commercial forestry business in Ireland based in Newtownmountkennedy. Coillte manage approximately 7% of the country’s land, and operates three businesses - their core forestry business, a 'land solutions' division, and a wood panel manufacturing business called 'Medite Smartply'.
The Cavan Senior Hurling Championship is an annual Gaelic Athletic Association competition between the top hurling clubs in Cavan. The winners of the Cavan Championship qualify to represent their county in the Ulster Club Championship, the winners of which go on to the All-Ireland Senior Club Hurling Championship. This championship has never been played on a consistent basis, and has frequently not been completed. In 2010, Mullahoran won the title for the 21st successive year. That run of victories was ended in 2011 when Ballymachugh beat Mullahoran in the final. In 2017, Mullahoran won their first title in four years with a win over Cootehill on a scoreline of 4–19 to 0–05. Cootehill are the current champions, having won the 2022 championship title.
Ballyhaise is a village in County Cavan, Ireland. It is situated some 7 km (4.3 mi) north-northeast of Cavan. It is approximately a 15-minute drive or 11 km via the N54 to the border with County Fermanagh in Northern Ireland. The River Annalee flows near the village.
Dartrey Forest is a forest and estate near Rockcorry in north-west County Monaghan, Ireland. It was formerly part of the Barony of Dartrey and was the country estate of the Dawson family, who had the title Earl of Dartrey from 1866 to 1933.
Bailieborough Castle was located in Bailieborough, County Cavan, Ireland. It was built in an enclosed demesne by 1629. Also known as Castle House, Lisgar House, or simply 'The Castle', the country house was located just to the south-west of Castle Lough in what is now known as Bailieborough Demesne, on the north-western edge of the town. It was largely destroyed by fire in the early 20th century and is now totally demolished.
Castleshane is a small village on the outskirts of Monaghan town in the north of County Monaghan in Ireland. The village is situated on the N2, the main road from Dublin to Derry and Letterkenny, and is located approximately 6 kilometres (3.7 mi) from Monaghan town and 17 km (11 mi) from Castleblayney. It is also located approximately 3 km (1.9 mi) away from the border with County Armagh, which is part of Northern Ireland.
Lough Key Forest Park is an 800-hectare park on the southern shore of Lough Key, 40 km south east of Sligo Town and 3 km east of Boyle, County Roscommon, in the Republic of Ireland. Formerly part of the Rockingham Estate laid out by the King family, it is open to the public.
Charles Coote, 1st Earl of Bellomont KB PC(I), was an Irish peer. He held a senior political position as one of the joint Postmasters General of Ireland. Charles was briefly styled as The 5th Baron Coote between February 1766 and his elevation to the earldom in September 1767.
Hugh 'Hughie' O'Reilly was a Gaelic footballer and manager of Cootehill Celtic GAA Club and the Cavan county team.
The High Sheriff of Cavan was the British Crown's judicial representative in County Cavan, Ireland from the 16th century until 1922, when the office was abolished in the new Free State and replaced by the office of Cavan County Sheriff. The sheriff had judicial, electoral, ceremonial and administrative functions and executed High Court Writs. In 1908, an Order in Council made the Lord-Lieutenant the Sovereign's prime representative in a county and reduced the High Sheriff's precedence. However the sheriff retained his responsibilities for the preservation of law and order in the county. The usual procedure for appointing the sheriff from 1660 onwards was that three persons were nominated at the beginning of each year from the county and the Lord Lieutenant then appointed one of the nominees as his choice of High Sheriff for the remainder of the year. Often the other nominees were appointed as under-sheriffs. Sometimes a sheriff did not fulfil his entire term through death or other event and another sheriff was then appointed for the remainder of the year. The dates given hereunder are the dates of appointment. All addresses are in County Cavan unless stated otherwise.
The Cavan Intermediate Football Championship is an annual Gaelic Athletic Association competition between the middle-tier Gaelic football clubs organised by Cavan GAA. It was first competed for in 1915, before a lapse prior to being revived in 1966. The winners qualify to represent their county in the Ulster Intermediate Club Football Championship and in turn, go on to the All-Ireland Intermediate Club Football Championship. The 2022 champions are Castlerahan who beat Ballyhaise in the final.