Final offers sought for 1000 acre historic home at €1.5m

Final offers are being invited by 4pm on Monday (May 11th) for Bellamont Forest in Cootehill, Co Cavan which has been on the market for a number of years.

Recently the 18th century property on 1000 acres and described as "one of the most perfect examples in the British Isles of a Palladian villa" has been for sale through a liquidator for €1.325million. The selling price has generated huge interest in Bellamont which was at the centre of the 1991 divorce action between the late owner John Coote and his wife Andrea (an Australian politician).

Now the selling agent Ganly Walters is moving to conclude the sale following about 200 enquiries about the property. The final offers process requires unconditional written offers on the property of a minimum of €1.5million. This means bidders must be prepared to accept the title deeds and show evidence of funds. They will then move forward into a private auction process until the highest bid is accepted. The agent says there are at least three interested parties so far and there have been enquiries from as far away as Australia, the Far East, the US and the UK, mainly from people interested in it as a family residence.

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Any possibility the Government might move to buy Bellamont as a public amenity because of its historical and architectural significance was ruled out last month when Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht Heather Humphreys said resources were not available to the Department to consider the purchase.

Bellamont Forest dates from the 1720s and was built to a design by renowned architect Edward Lovett Pearce. It was bought in 1987 by John Coote, an Australian interior designer of international repute and a specialist in the restoration of classical buildings, who restored and refurnished Bellamont, but put it up for sale in 2010 at a guide price of €7.5 million. He died in 2012, and since then the condition of Bellamont has deteriorated. Buyers will need to invest a further €1million to €2 million to restore it fully.

Though the property is on 1000 acres, about 400 acres is under lake and a further 450 acres is in woodland which is owned by Coillte after a previous owner bequeathed the woodland to the State for 150 years.

Following John Coote's death the Irish Georgian Society alerted Cavan County Council about the removal of highly valuable marble busts, which had been set in niches along the walls of the main hall. Integral to Lovett Pearce's original design for the house the society maintained the busts constitutes 'fixtures and fittings' and are therefore protected. At the time Cavan County Council confirmed it had sent enforcement notices to representatives of the late John Coote.

According to selling agent Celia Lamb the motivation behind the final offers process is to move the property to a point where serious bidders can come forward and enter a private auction which should conclude within days. “This is the most honest and transparent way of selling the property and it facilitates overseas bidders in different time zones.”