Coollattin House in Co Wicklow perfectly fits the theme for this year’s National Heritage Week – heritage at risk. When approaching the property, near Shillelagh, its sheer size makes an immediate impression. The backstory is a good case study of the ups and downs that many country-house estates have gone through over the past 300 or so years.
At 65,000sq ft (more than 6,000sq m), the original Palladian-style house, its late 19th century east and west wings and adjoining courtyards with further guest accommodation, is believed to be the largest in Ireland.
“The house was never a school, college or government building so all the fittings are here,” says Peter Farrelly, a co-owner of Coollattin.
Farrelly is one of a group of seven people who came together to form the Coollattin House Partnership, which bought the property and about eight hectares of land from Coollattin Golf Club in 2021.
“The golf club had a couple of failed sale agreeds and it was during the second Covid lockdown that one of us saw it for sale,” he says.
“You couldn’t travel more than 5km from your home, but visitations for house sales were exempt so we came to see it.”
The group, which also includes long-term An Taisce volunteer and conservationist Ian Lumley, agreed to buy the property for €975,000.
“The first thing that struck me personally was how sorry I felt for the house,” Farrelly says. “The shutters were closed. There wasn’t any furniture. There was fungus on the walls, mould and dampness everywhere and buckets catching water in the rooms.”
With extensive water ingress from leaky roofs and overflowing gutters, the house was in a very dilapidated state. Broken windows were allowing access for pigeons seeking to nest, while extensive bramble growth meant the basement was hidden from view.
Peter Farrelly is a member of the Coollattin House Partnership which bought the property. Photograph: Nick Bradshaw 
Coollattin House. Photograph: Nick Bradshaw 
Coollattin House. Photograph: Nick Bradshaw
Coollattin Golf Club – which purchased the house and 58 acres from the American Wardrop family in 1995 – had carried out feasibility studies with a view to turning the house into holiday accommodation, but the 2008 economic crash put paid to those plans.
Now, more than five years into the current ownership, some of the bigger jobs of renewing lead in roof valleys, cleaning gutters, repairing windows and replacing rotting joists are under way.
Farrelly accepts it is an enormous job, but the aim for now is to “stabilise” rather than restore the house, with some of the co-owners using their own building and conservation skills to carry out tasks. For example, there is a dedicated window repair workshop in one of the mind-boggling 117 rooms that make up the house. There also are tack and saddle rooms, wine cellars, basement kitchens and countless bedrooms and reception rooms across the two wings and main house.
When the partnership gained ownership of the building, it had been emptied of all its furniture and decorative objects. Since then, through a mix of purchases at auction (especially items linked to the original owners, the Fitzwilliam family) and donations from locals and members of the Irish Georgian Society, the house has a lived in, laid-back grandeur in spite of the ongoing repair works.
“We’re not aiming for the standards of Ashford Castle,” says Farrelly as he walks through the property.
The Coollattin Estate dates back to the 17th century when Thomas Wentworth – King Charles I’s representative in Ireland – “acquired” 60,000 acres of land.
Coollattin House. Photograph: Nick Bradshaw 
Coollattin House. Photograph: Nick Bradshaw 
Coollattin House. Photograph: Nick Bradshaw
In the early 19th century, the present house was completed to the design of architect John Carr of York for the fourth earl of Fitzwilliam, who had inherited the property from his uncle, Charles Wentworth-Watson.
During the 1830s, Coollattin Estate was the largest single landholding in Wicklow, stretching across about one-fifth of the county and having approximately 20,000 tenants.
In the late 19th century, another Yorkshire-based architect, William Dickie, was employed by the earl of Fitzwilliam to construct new east and west wings in local granite with a servant’s wing and stables to the south.
“The Fitzwilliam family owned collieries all over Yorkshire and later got into steel and metal production and car manufacturing,” Farrelly explains.
The family’s ancestral home in England, the Wentworth Woodhouse estate in South Yorkshire, is now owned by a trust.
In Wicklow, the Fitzwilliam family – who were considered progressive landlords – built churches and schools to cater for Catholics and Protestants as well as houses in villages across south Co Wicklow.
Coollattin House. Photograph: Nick Bradshaw 
Coollattin House. Photograph: Nick Bradshaw 
Coollattin House. Photograph: Nick Bradshaw
During the Great Famine (1845-1852), the Fitzwilliams aided the passage of hundreds of families to Canada. More than 40,000 Canadians are said to now trace their ancestry back to the Coollattin Estate, and the coolattinlives.ie website features digitalised records and maps allowing descendants to find their ancestral homeplaces.
“At its peak, there would have been 100 people working here between the house, gardens [and] stables,” Farrelly says.
Guided tours are being offered at Coollattin House during National Heritage Week, which runs until August 23rd, and a talk titled Three Centuries of Building and Rebuilding takes place today.
Visitors will see how the addition of the east wing involved moving the main entrance from the south to the north of the house, with an elaborate porticoed entrance leading into an elegant hall and stairs connecting it back to the main house.
The Fitzwilliam family continued to own Coollattin House until well into the 20th century. In 1948, the eight earl of Fitzwilliam, Peter Wentworth-Fitzwilliam, was killed in a plane crash alongside the widowed Kathleen Cavendish, marchioness of Hartington (sister of the future president of the United States, John F Kennedy), with whom he was romantically involved.
His widow, Olive Plunkett, continued to live in Coollattin until her death in 1975, after which the house and its contents were sold by the couple’s only child, Lady Juliet Tadgell (née Wentworth-Fitzwilliam).
Following its sale by the Fitzwilliam family, Coollattin House went through a turbulent period, changing hands a couple of times, with much of its land sold off.
Coollattin House. Photograph: Nick Bradshaw 
Coollattin House. Photograph: Nick Bradshaw 
Coollattin House. Photograph: Nick Bradshaw
During this time, the destruction of large oak woodlands on the estate resulted in high-profile protests, with activists camping in the forests, and protracted legal battles and stand-offs with felling crews.
Sheppard’s auctioneers of Durrow, Co Laois used the house as a location for three country house summer auctions from 2016-2018, giving thousands of interested members of the public rare access to the property.
Now, as well as stabilising the house itself, the current owners are building new connections. As members of Historic Houses of Ireland, they host tours in April, May and August. They also host the annual symposium for the head gardeners of private and public gardens throughout Ireland and have good rapport with UK businessman Brian Kingham, who is replanting native trees on adjacent lands formerly part of the Coollattin Estate.
With technical support from the Irish Georgian Society, and grant funding received from the State in 2024, stabilisation works continue.
“The partnership approach in tackling the revitalisation of a historic house of this scale is quite inspirational and all involved are to be commended for their commitment to what is an extraordinary heritage project,” says Donough Cahill, executive director of the Irish Georgian Society.
[ ‘Irish Mansions Mined and Burned’: 275 houses destroyed in four yearsOpens in new window ]
Coollattin House now is a far cry from the upstairs-downstairs formalised life of landed gentry, but the efforts of the partnership have saved Ireland’s largest country house from falling into ruin.
Farrelly is conscious of the responsibility the seven partners have taken on.
“We’ve hosted a couple of weddings and concerts. We don’t have a long-term plan but at some stage, we’ll have to think of ways to generate income,” he says.
A 60th birthday party was planned for the day after our visit and a Russian-Irish music video crew had stayed a few weeks previously. Friends and family of the owners are also regular visitors in what seems to be a 21st century version – take us as you find us – version of hospitality.