Coollattin (also known as Malton), Shillelagh, Co Wicklow
Bence-Jones, Mark. A Guide to Irish Country Houses (originally published as Burke’s Guide to Country Houses volume 1 Ireland by Burke’s Peerage Ltd. 1978); Revised edition 1988 Constable and Company Ltd, London.
p. 91. “Fitzwilliam, E/PB) A two storey house built 1801-4 for 4th Earl Fitzwilliam, who became Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland 1795 but was recalled after three months on account of his sympathy for Catholic Emancipation – replacing a house which he built 1796, and which was burnt 1798. It was designed by the veteran English architect, John Carr of York, with whom Lord Fitzwilliam, as a great Yorks magnate, would have had contacts; and as would thus be expected, its design is conservative; the entrance front is of five bays, wiht a three bay breakfront and a wide pediment; the side elevations each with a central curved bow. The entrance door is under a simple pillared porch. In the absence of the octogenarian Carr, the work of building was supervised by Thomas Hobson, a mason from Yorks. Later in C19, the house was enlarged, the new addition being at the back and having a lower ground floor, since the ground falls away steeply on this side. The later additions include a monumental hall and a dining room. The rooms in the earlier part of the house, which include a bow ended rom with apses, were altered and redecorated late C19. Good stable yard with wide pediment on centre block. Sold 1977 to Mr Brendan Cadogan and Mr Patrick Tattan.”
https://www.coollattinhouse.ie
The house and associated yard buildings formed the centre of the Fitzwilliam family estate which once extended to 90,000 acres.
The current main block of Coollattin House was rebuilt after the 1798 Rebellion to the design of architect John Carr of York. It comprises a pedimented south facing entrance front with centrally positioned bow windows to the east and west sides. Its internal plan is designed around a central stone staircase with dome at roof level.
During the 19th Century the original house was extended with wings to the east and west. The east wing provided a new pillared entrance porch, leading to a vaulted entrance hall and Italianate staircase linking with the original house. The west wing was designed to provide service accommodation including a high ceilinged kitchen.
To the west of the main house two linked yard buildings were designed to contain additional guest and staff accommodation, stables, coach houses and a laundry and drying room.
The particular interest of Coollattin lies in its evocation of the life and working of an Irish country house in the 19th. Century. Features include the library with built in mahogany bookcases, a functioning dumb waiter lift, original kitchen fixtures including cast iron cooking range, a vaulted passageway to link the basement with the laundry, and stone floored stables with oak doors to the stalls.
20 acres of the original grounds remain with the house. These contain a collection of specimen trees and a variety of hybrid Rhododendrons with peak flowering in the April-May period .
Since 2021 the house and grounds have been in the ownership of the Coollattin House Limited Partnership which is advancing an ongoing restoration programme to reflect and enhance their historic character.
Since 2023, the Irish Government have officially recognised that Coollattin House and grounds ‘is intrinsically of significant architectural, aesthetic and historical interest’.
Detached five-bay two-storey over basement former mansion, built 1804, now in occasional use as a clubhouse for the golf course. It is to designs by architect John Carr of York. The house is finished with lined render with ashlar granite dressings. To the south front elevation there is a pedimented three-bay breakfront with a carved heraldic shield to the tympanum. To the west and rear there is a later service wing and a range of out buildings. The part-glazed front door has a radial fanlight and is set within a flat-headed opening. It is framed with two freestanding Tuscan order columns, which support a wide pediment. Window openings are flat-headed with six over six-timber sash frames; louvred external shutters were added c.1970. The hipped roof is finished with natural slate and cast-iron rainwater goods. The chimneystacks are rendered with corbelled caps and clay pots. The house is set within a large well-wooded demesne, part of which is now in use as a golf course.
Appraisal
This early 19th century country house is well preserved and although somewhat conservative in design it nevertheless compliments its setting well.
https://theirishaesthete.com/2021/08/09/coolattin/
A Massive Undertaking I
Many people will be familiar with the travails in recent years of Wentworth Woodhouse in Yorkshire, said to be the largest private house in England (and with the longest facade of any house in Europe). However, they are unlikely to know about Coollattin, County Wicklow which, at 65,000 square feet is thought to be the largest private house in Ireland. It is no coincidence that both properties – which suffered such long periods of neglect that their respective futures looked imperilled – were originally built for the same family, the Earls Fitzwilliam. In England and Ireland alike, the Fitzwilliams were very substantial landowners – here they came to have some 90,000 acres – which allowed them to build on a more palatial scale than most other peers. And the rich seams of coal on their Yorkshire property further enhanced their wealth, as was described in Catherine Bailey’s 2007 book Black Diamonds: The Rise and Fall of an English Dynasty. However, their direct link with Ireland only began in 1782 when the fourth earl inherited the estates of his childless maternal uncle, the second Marquess of Rockingham: the latter was a descendant of Thomas Wentworth, Earl of Strafford who had been Charles I’s Irish Lord Deputy in the 1630s and while here embarked on what was then intended to be the country’s largest private house, at Jigginstown, County Kildare (his recall in 1640 left the building unfinished). …
https://theirishaesthete.com/2021/08/11/coolattin-2/
A Massive Undertaking II
Last Monday’s post featured a very brief synopsis of the history of Coollattin, County Wicklow, believed to be the largest house in Ireland. The core of the building, and that first seen by visitors today, was designed in the 1790s for the fourth Earl Fitzwilliam by John Carr of York. In the mid-1870s the sixth earl decided to expand the property by creating a new entrance front as well as adding a new south range along with servants’ wing, stables and carriage houses, hence the place’s considerable size today. He gave this job to another Yorkshire resident, his clerk of works at Wentworth Woodhouse, William Dickie. Whereas the original house is finished with lined render, the extensions are fronted in local granite, so for the most part, at least on the exterior, it is possible to see which parts are by Carr and which by Dickie.
The most striking addition made by Dickie and his client to the building is a new entrance at what had been the rear of Coollattin. The ground slopes behind the house, so this entrance is at a lower level than its predecessor to the south, and features a great portico with paired Doric columns and a flight of granite steps leading up to the door. Inside is a fine hall with coved ceiling and flagged limestone floor. A smaller inner hall contains a large chimneypiece but to the immediate right is a flight of steps which in due course turns 90 degrees to introduce the main staircase climbing to the ground floor of the original house. Beneath a coffered ceiling and lit by a line of tall arched windows – these matched by a balustraded gallery with similar openings on the facing side of the steps – this staircase has terrific drama, reminiscent of that found in Piedmontese or Sicilian Baroque palaces. It is quite unlike anything else in the entire building, much of the rest of Dickie’s work here being competent but lacking excitement. When eventually restored, this great staircase will provide a most marvelous ceremonial access to this important Irish country house.
See Robert O’Byrne, The Irish Country House, A New Vision. With photographs by Luke White. Rizzoli, New York, Paris, London, Milan, 2024.
p. 33. “Soon enough, during the second quarter of the nineteenth century, the first Earl Fitzwilliam [Charles William Wentworth Fitzwilliam (1786-1857)] employing another Yorkshire architect named James Pritchett, replaced the old kitchen wing with a substantial three-storey block faced in granite ashlar and replicating the bracketed cornice detailing of the main Carr house. To the west of the new wing, a substantial stable and coach yard was created, also in granite ashlar with a stone cornice, its upper level linked to the west wing and containing extensive bachelor accommodation.
While considerable, these additions came to be deemed insufficient, because in 1875 the sixth earl [William Thomas Spencer Wentworth-Fitzwilliam 6th Earl (1815-1902)] asked his own Yorkshire-based architect, William Dickie, to further enlarge Coollattin. Cickie boldly reoriented the houses’s entrance to the north with a granite-faced east wing entered from a pillaraed porch at the basement level of the original house. This led to a vaulted entrance hall from which extended an immense Italian stone staircase with an arched balustraded gallery, the latter integrating with the floor level of the original Carr building and containing a master bedroom with boudoir over the entrance hall.”
p. 33 [after being sold by the widow Wardrop] For the next quarter-century the building stood unoccupied and, although some maintenance work was undertaken, inevitably it suffered teh effects of being empty and unused. Finally, in 2021 the house with just twenty acres was offered for sale and bought by a small group of concerned individuals who created a new charitable organisation, the Collattin House Partnership, with the objective of restoring the house as a residence, together with securing fresh uses for the various outbuildings and restoring the grounds and garden areas under its control. Work on this audacious project has begun and is likely to be ongoing for a long time to come….
p. 40. As part of the alterations undertaken in the house during the nineteenth century, a wall was removed between the original entrance hall and a morning room in order to create a large drawing room, the former division marked by a screen of fluted Ionic columns.
p. 40. The present owners have been collecting items associated with the Fitzwilliams, such as a dinner service bearing the earl’s coronet.
https://lordbelmontinnorthernireland.blogspot.com/2013/07/coollattin-park.html
THE EARLS FITZWILLIAM WERE THE GREATEST LANDOWNERS IN COUNTY WICKLOW, WITH 89,981 ACRES
In 1565, HUGH FITZWILLIAM (c1534-c1576), of Emley, Sprotbrough, and Haddlesey, Yorkshire, collected the records of his family, and from these records the following particulars are partly deduced: SIR WILLIAM FITZ GODRIC, cousin to EDWARD THE CONFESSOR, left a son and heir, SIR WILLIAM FITZWILLIAM, who, being ambassador at the court of WILLIAM, Duke of Normandy, attended that prince in his victorious expedition against England, as marshal of the army, in 1066; and for his valour at the battle of Hastings, THE CONQUEROR presented him with a scarf from his own arm.
This Sir William was father of
SIR WILLIAM FITZWILLIAM, Knight, who wedded Eleanor, daughter and heiress of Sir John Emley, of Emley and Sprotbrough, by which marriage the Fitzwilliams obtained the lordships of Emley and Sprotbrough, which continued with them until the reign of HENRY VIII, when those lordships were carried, by co-heirs, into the families of Suthill and Copley.
Sir William was succeeded by his son,
SIR WILLIAM FITZWILLIAM,
Lord of Emley and Sprotbrough, living in 1117, as appears from a grant made by him of a piece of the wood in Emley to the monks of Byland. To this grant, in a round seal, is represented a man on horseback, completely armed and circumscribed S. Willmi Filij Willmi Dni de Emmalaia; and on the reverse, the arms of FITZWILLIAM, viz. Lozenge. This Sir William, or one of his descendants, caused a cross to be set up in the high street of Sprotbrough; which cross was pulled down in 1520.
From Sir William we pass to his descendant,
SIR JOHN FITZWILLIAM, who founded, in 1372, the Chantry of St Edward in the church of Sprotbrough; and having married Elizabeth, daughter of William de Clinton, 1st Earl of Huntingdon, had three sons, the eldest of whom,
SIR WILLIAM FITZWILLIAM, married Maud, daughter of Ralph, 3rd Lord Cromwell, of Tattershall, and co-heir of the Lord Treasurer Cromwell, by whom he had one son and two daughters.
He was succeeded by his son,
SIR JOHN FITZWILLIAM, who wedded Eleanor, daughter of Sir Henry Green, of Drayton, and had six sons.
The youngest son,
JOHN FITZWILLIAM, of Milton Hall and Greens Norton, in Northamptonshire, espoused Eleanor, daughter of William Villiers, of Brooksby, Leicestershire, by whom he had three sons and two daughters, and was succeeded by his eldest son,
THE RT HON SIR WILLIAM FITZWILLIAM (c1460-1534), Knight, of Milton and Gaynes Park, Essex, and also of the city of London, of which he was sheriff in 1506.
Sir William married firstly, Anne, daughter of Sir John Hawes, Knight, of the city of London, and had,
WILLIAM, his heir;
Richard;
Elizabeth; Anne.
He wedded secondly, Mildred, daughter of Richard Sackville, of Withyham, Sussex, and had three sons and two daughters,
Christopher;
Francis;
Thomas;
Eleanor; Mary.
Sir William was succeeded by his eldest son,
SIR WILLIAM FITZWILLIAM, Knight, who espoused Anne, daughter of Sir Richard Sapcote, of Elton, Huntingdonshire; and was succeeded by his son and heir,
SIR WILLIAM FITZWILLIAM (1526-99), Lord Deputy of Ireland and Lord Justice, who wedded Anne, daughter of Sir William Sydney, and aunt of the 1st Earl of Leicester, and had issue,
WILLIAM, his heir;
John;
Mary; Philippa; Margaret.
Sir William was succeeded by his son,
SIR WILLIAM FITZWILLIAM, Knight, of Milton and Gaynes Park Hall, who was elevated to the peerage, in 1620, in the dignity of Baron Fitzwilliam, of Lifford, County Donegal.
His lordship wedded Catherine, daughter of William Hyde, of Denchworth, Berkshire; and dying in 1644, was succeeded by his elder son,
WILLIAM, 2nd Baron (c1609-58), who espoused, in 1638, Jane, daughter and co-heir of Alderman Hugh Perry, of London, and had issue,
WILLIAM, his heir;
Charles;
Jane, m Sir Christopher Wren, the celebrated architect.
His lordship was succeeded by his eldest surviving son,
WILLIAM, 3rd Baron (1643-1719), who was advanced, in 1716, to the dignities of Viscount Milton, County Westmeath, and EARL FITZWILLIAM, of County Tyrone.
His lordship married Anne, daughter and sole heir of Edmund Cremor, of West Winch, Norfolk, by whom he had four sons and six daughters.
He was succeeded by his third, but eldest surviving son,
JOHN, 2nd Earl (1681-1728), who wedded Anne, daughter and sole heir of John Stringer, of Sutton-cum-Lound, Nottinghamshire, and left, with three daughters, a son and successor,
WILLIAM, 3rd Earl (1719-56), then a minor, who was, in 1742, enrolled amongst the peers of Great Britain, by GEORGE II, by the style and title of Lord Fitzwilliam, Baron Milton, in Northamptonshire.
His lordship was advanced, in 1746, to the dignities of Viscount Milton and EARL FITZWILLIAM, in the same county.
He espoused, in 1744, the Lady Anne Watson-Wentworth, eldest daughter of Thomas, Marquess of Rockingham, and sister and co-heir of Charles, 2nd Marquess of Rockingham, by whom he had issue,
WILLIAM, his successor;
Charlotte; Frances Henrietta.
His lordship was succeeded by his eldest son,
WILLIAM, 4th Earl (1748-1833), Lord Lieutenant of Ireland for a very short period, in 1795, who married firstly, in 1770, the Lady Charlotte Ponsonby, second daughter of William, 2nd Earl of Bessborough, by whom he had an only child, CHARLES WILLIAM WENTWORTH, his heir.
Charles William, 5th Earl (1786-1857);
William Charles, Viscount Milton (1812-35);
William Thomas Spencer, 6th Earl (1815-1902);
William, Viscount Milton (1839-77);
William Charles de Meuron, 7th Earl (1872-1943);
(William Henry Lawrence) Peter, 8th Earl (1910-48);
Eric Spencer, 9th Earl (1883-1952);
William Thomas George, 10th Earl (1904-79).
The titles expired following the decease of the 10th and last Earl.
COOLLATTIN PARK, is near Shillelagh in County Wicklow.
The history of the Wentworth/Fitzwilliam families has been well documented, but what is less well known is the influence they had on the history of the kingdom of Ireland.
As well as the family seat of Wentworth Woodhouse in Yorkshire (where they owned 22,000 acres in 1870), the Earls Fitzwilliam also resided at Malton House (later Coollattin House) in County Wicklow, from where they managed their vast estate.
Coollattin is now a golf club.
The 4th Earl built Coollattin House (it was originally called Malton, one of his grandfather’s titles as Earl of Malton).
The house was designed by the leading architect John Carr, who was also responsible for the grandiose “stable block” at Wentworth Woodhouse as well as the Keppel’s Column and Mausoleum monuments near Wentworth.
The building was started around 1794 but before completion it was burned down in a rebellion in 1798 (along with 160 other houses in the nearby village of Carnew and several Catholic churches).
Work resumed again in 1800 and the house was completed in 1807.
As well as rebuilding their house and the village, the Fitzwilliams contributed to the repairs of the Catholic churches and gave land for other churches (whilst other landlords would not even allow a Catholic church on their estate).
Throughout the family’s time in Ireland they did not take sides in the various Irish struggles through the centuries, and perhaps as a consequence their house was left untouched in the last dash for independence.
As well as undertaking building and agricultural projects, the 4th Earl was also the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland for a short time in 1795.
In 2003, The Times newspaper wrote:
When the 10th and last Earl died in 1979 the remnants of the huge Coollattin estate, for centuries the Irish seat of the Earls Fitzwilliam, was sold by the last Earl’s widow, Lady Juliet De Chairoff, and in the following years, it was broken up and sold on bit by bit.
In 1983, the sprawling Coollattin House, with its vast lands attached, was resold for €128,000.
When the farm land value was removed, this amounted to just £8,000 for the house itself — which, with its 120-plus rooms, is still among the largest private houses in the country.
In the same year the average price of a standard new home in Dublin was more than four times that, at £35,000.
In living memory, the once-grand Coollattin estate had spanned 88,000 acres, had 20,000 tenants and comprised one quarter of Co Wicklow.
There has long been a rumour that the estate harboured a vast tunnel used by inhabitants of the house to escape to the lodge.
The estate began falling apart in 1948 when the last earl, Peter Fitzwilliam, was killed in a plane crash with JFK’s sister, Kathleen (Kick) Kennedy, with whom, it was speculated, he had been having an affair.
His estate tenants genuinely grieved.
The Fitzwilliams had a history of being among the most liberal landlords in Ireland.
They had paid tenants more, invested in their education and had worked hard to ensure that the built environment in their towns was above average.
When the Great Famine came, the Fitzwilliam family were at least decent enough to ship their excess tenants to America rather than simply turn them off the land as many landlords did.
Thousands were sent abroad to start new lives in this manner.
Perhaps this was the reason Coollattin House survived the great burning sprees that erupted through and after the war of independence, when working classes took their revenge on the less benevolent owners of big house.
Former seats ~ Coollattin Park, County Wicklow; Wentworth Woodhouse, Yorkshire; Milton Hall, Cambridgeshire.
Former town residence ~ 4 Grosvenor Square, London.
First published in July, 2011.
https://www.igs.ie/conservation/project/coollattin-house-co-wicklow
Detached five-bay two-storey over basement former mansion, built 1804, now in occasional use as a clubhouse for the golf course. It is to designs by architect John Carr of York. The house is finished with lined render with ashlar granite dressings. To the south front elevation there is a pedimented three-bay breakfront with a carved heraldic shield to the tympanum. To the west and rear there is a later service wing and a range of out buildings. The part-glazed front door has a radial fanlight and is set within a flat-headed opening. It is framed with two free-standing Tuscan order columns, which support a wide pediment. Window openings are flat-headed with six-over-six-timber sash frames; louvred external shutters were added c.1970. The hipped roof is finished with natural slate and cast-iron rainwater goods. The chimney stacks are rendered with corbelled caps and clay pots. The house is set within a large well-wooded demesne, part of which is now in use as a golf course.
Brief description of project: The Society pledged €5,000 for repairs to part slate roof and lead lined paraet gutter over the main access stairwell.
http://carnewhistory.blogspot.com/p/coolattin-estate.html
Coolattin Estate comprised of 80,000 acres and covered much of southwest Wicklow.·The Fitzwilliam family owned Coolattin Estate for 200 years before they sold it in the 1970s.·Before this, the area was under the control of the O’Byrnes.·The first personto own the Coolattin Estate was actually ‘Black Tom’ Wentworth. He was considered unfair.·The estate was originally called Fairwood and later became known as Malton when Thomas Watson-Wentworth (the Earl of Malton) inherited the estate in 1728.·Rents in Coolattin Estate were considered very low, sometimes as little as half of what tenants in Wexford.·In 1750, Charles Watson-Wentworth inherited the estate. He was a great supporter of Catholics and put a lot of work into improving the estate.·When Charles died, he had no sons thus the estate went to his nephew, William, the 4th Earl Fitzwilliam.Fitzwilliam was required to change his name to William Wentworth-Fitzwilliam. He renamed the estate as Coolattin.·Although a Protestant himself, William Fitzwilliam was also a supporter of Catholics and, for this reason, he was not well liked by the Irish and English Parliaments. Even some of his Protestant tenants disliked him for this reason.·When William died in 1833, his son Charles became the 5th Earl and took over the estate. Charles had been an MP and when he took over the estate his son, William Thomas Spencer Fitzwilliam became an MP. He was firstly MP for Malton in Yorkshire and later (1847-1856) MP for Wicklow.·Charles was also liberal and empathised with Catholics like his father.·While we might think that Coolattin Estate was very large, it was actually quite small compared to the Fitzwilliams’ holdings in England.·For this reason, they rarely visited Wicklow and hired an agent to manage the estate. This position was held by Robert Challoner for many years.·Land in Coolattin was divided into farms and parklands, mountains and bogs. The ‘big house’ was at Coolattin Park near Shillelagh.·Farm size could be anything from a couple of acres to up to 800 acres.·Some people sub-let their farms. These people were called head tenant and were mostly Protestants and Catholics living in Coolattin rented land from them.·Others had no land but rented a cabin and small garden.·People held leases from Fitzwilliam for either 21 years or a life –whichever was longer. Usually, you named one of your children as the life so the longer the child lived the longer you would hold the land.·Fitzwilliam charged low rents but the head tenants often charged much higher rents to the subtenants.·A landless labourer could be expected to pay £1 a year for his house, for an extra £1 he could have a garden and for £10 a year extra he would be given an acreor so of land on which he could grow potatoes.·Often, they worked to pay the rent ratherthan giving over money.·People paid their rent twice a year: Lady Day (25 March) and Michaelmas (29 September) but they had a space of a few months to pay this.Fitzwilliam rarely evicted people who could not pay their rent in full.
Despite this, many still had to borrow a lot of money to pay their rent.·If improvements were need on the estate, e.g. if your land needed to be drained, Fitzwilliam would pay for this then add a small charge to your rent to cover it.·A lot of labourers on the estate could notget work but Fitzwilliam often employed more workers than he needed.·Labourers were usually paid 10d per day in summer and 8d per day in winter as darker days meantthat the working day was shorter (remember they had no electric lights!). Employers sometimes provided food and the cost of this was taken out of your wages.·If you were employed directly by Fitzwilliam you received the highest wages.·The agent, Challoner, received £1,000 per year but he noted himself that this was excessively high.·In 1836, workers in Coolattin Park applied for an increase in wages claiming that they were ‘strangers to every food except potatoes’. Fitzwilliam did not increase wages but gave a 6d loaf every Saturday to any labourer who had worked the full week.·Both Fitzwilliamand Challoner were very interested in the welfare of the tenants on the Estate. They set up farming societies to help tenants better farm their land. They also agreed to a scholarship for the best student on the estate to go to Dublin University (Trinity).·Despite Fitzwilliam’s improvements, the poorer tenants on the estate still lived on a diet consisting mainly of potatoes, buttermilk and sometimes and salted herrings.Source used: Rees, J. (2000) Surplus People –The Fitzwilliam Clearances 1847-1856. Cork: The Collins Press.
Irish Historic Houses 