Castle Coole, County Fermanagh

The sense of proportion, spaciousness and high-quality craftsmanship that visitors will experience in the entrance hall is repeated throughout the house. The room remains much as Wyatt intended except for the recently restored porphyry-red of the walls, which copies a scrape of the colour specified by Preston around 1816. This colour blends well with the screen of red scagliola columns (by the Italian Dominic Bartoli), which support a full Doric entablature running round the room. The bare walls, Portland stone flagging, statues in the wall niches and curtainless windows combine to give the hall a cool, austere, neo-classical feel in striking contrast to the great oval saloon in the middle of the garden front - by far the richest room in the house and one of the most magnificent in Ireland.

The ceiling of this room, like the others of the house, was executed by plasterers from the London workshop of Joseph Rose, whom Adam had employed for many of his finest décors, including Nostell, Syon and Harewood. The walls are lined with grey scagliola Corinthian pilasters, worked by Bartoli, the capitals for which were sent over from London by Rose. Perhaps the most outstanding features are the magnificent curved mahogany doors which are inlaid with satin wood and hung on pivots. Preston's splendid gilt furniture, mirrors and set of curtains supplied between 1815 and 1821 blend superbly with Wyatt's scheme and give the room a continental Empire atmosphere.

Flanking the saloon are the elegant dining- and drawing-rooms which interconnect to form an enfilade, or cross axis. The decoration of the dining-room seems to have changed little since Wyatt's day and still contains much of the furniture he designed, though the table was supplied by Preston. The drawing-room was entirely furnished and decorated by Preston and has been restored by the National Trust to its regency appearance. The doorcases are richly decorated in pietro duro as they are elsewhere, including the library where splendid bookcases made between 1792 and 1793, by the joiners Peacock and Berry, feature reeded mouldings and ribbon bandings in the uprights, a fluted architrave and guilloche dado. The chimney-piece of statuary marble, carved to simulate festooned drapery, is the finest of six mantels acquired at great expense from Westmacott of London in 1796, while Preston's curtains and valance were replaced in 1857 with the present 'figured crimson silk poplin' supplied by Gibson and Son.

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From the Appletree Press title: Irish Country Houses.