Overview
You can’t go inside Bellamont House – it’s a private home – but that isn’t really why you’d come. The 1730 villa is one of the earliest Palladian houses in Ireland, and what’s open to the public is the estate around it: roughly 1,000 acres of woodland, drumlin ridge and lake, five kilometres north-west of Cootehill, all free to walk. If you’ve an hour, take the 4 km lakeside loop; the house itself only shows in glimpses, from the higher ground on the longer circuit.
Architecture and history
Bellamont House was completed in 1730 for Judge Thomas Coote and is usually attributed to Edward Lovett Pearce, the nephew of Coote’s third wife. The square, four-bay villa was loosely modelled on Palladio’s Villa La Rotonda: red brick, limestone quoins, a rusticated basement and a Doric portico. It’s one of the few houses in Ireland with a mezzanine storey, tucked into the north and south fronts. The name comes from the Earl of Bellomont, a title held by branches of the Coote family.
The estate changed hands repeatedly. In 1875 the coal trader Edward Smith bought it for £145,000, a fortune made on the Newry-to-Liverpool trade. It passed to his grandson Eric Dorman-Smith, a British army officer who changed his name to O’Gowan, turned Republican, and let the IRA use the grounds during the 1950s border campaign.
After a spell of decline, Bryan and Catherine Mills bought Bellamont in 1981 and spent two years on it – new roof, rewiring, rescuing rotten plasterwork – work that earned Ireland’s first government grant for a private house restoration. The Australian designer John Coote, a distant relation, took it on in 1989 and restored the stables, walled garden and estate housing before his sudden death in 2012.
The American lawyer John Morehart bought Bellamont in 2015 for €2 million and spent a decade on a careful restoration of both house and land. When Coillte gave up its forestry lease in 2021, he turned to replanting native woodland and cleaning up the lakes. He died in December 2025. An Taisce calls the result ‘an iconic building of national importance’, and one of the century’s better conservation stories.
The house stays private, but it opens now and then for specialist groups – the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland toured in 2017, and the Irish Georgian Society has visited. There is no general public access to the interior.
Walking the forest
Two waymarked loops run from the car park, both free and kept up year-round:
- 4 km loop: a largely level circuit past the lake and stands of mature oak. Fine for families and, mostly, for sturdy wheelchairs.
- 8 km circuit: climbs onto the higher drumlins for long views over the Cavan lowlands and the odd distant sight of the house. Wear proper boots.
The forest has hosted Operation Transformation walks, so the routes see a fair bit of local use. Picnic tables and benches sit along the way, and a board at the car park lays out the trails and the estate’s history.
Wildlife and nature
The mix of native broadleaf and older conifer holds red and fallow deer, along with badgers, foxes and buzzards. The lakes have trout and pike, and anglers can ask locally about permits. Bluebells carpet the woodland floor in April and May; the drumlins turn in late September and October. Winter walks are fine, but frost makes some of the shaded sections slippery.
Practical information
- Getting there: follow the R191 north-west from Cootehill and watch for the signed turn to the forest car park.
- Parking: free, at the forest entrance, but the car park isn’t large – come early at weekends.
- Access: the trails are open and free to walk during daylight; the house is private and best seen from the road or the forest viewpoints, not up close.
- Facilities: toilets at the car park, picnic tables and a trail board. No shop or café on site.
- Accessibility: the 4 km loop is largely level and manageable for mobility scooters and sturdy wheelchairs; the 8 km circuit has uneven ground and climbs.
- Dogs: a common sight on the trails – keep them close around wildlife and ground-nesting birds.
- Nearby: Cootehill, five kilometres off, has cafés, pubs, a library and places to stay.
Nearby attractions
- Annagh Lake – a lake with a historic crannóg, popular for swimming, angling and lakeside walks.
- Castle Lake & Bailieborough Castle – woodland circuits around a quiet lake and the ruins of a 17th-century tower house.
- Cavan Way – a long-distance route threading the Cavan lowlands and their drumlin landscapes.
After heavy rain the lower paths turn to mud, so save the 8 km circuit for a dry spell – and bring boots either way.