This National Trust–owned neoclassical palace sits in 600 hectares of beautiful parkland containing a lake that's home to the UK's only nonmigratory colony of greylag geese. The house's double cantilever staircase, Italian marble fireplaces, Regency furniture and basement servants quarters can be seen on one-hour guided tours.
Castle Coole is 2.5km southeast of Enniskillen; it's a pleasant 5km walk or cycle along the Castle to Castle path from Enniskillen Castle.
Designed by James Wyatt, the Palladian mansion was built between 1789 and 1795 for Armar Lowry-Corry, the first earl of Belmore, and is probably the purest expression of late-18th-century neoclassical architecture in Ireland. When King George IV visited Ireland in 1821, the second earl of Belmore had a state bedroom specially prepared at Castle Coole in anticipation of the monarch's visit. The king, however, was more interested in dallying with his mistress at Slane Castle and never turned up. The bedroom, draped in red silk and decorated with paintings depicting A Rake's Progress, is one of the highlights of the house tour.
