History of Florence Court

Expert curated

A view of the exterior of Florence Court in Northern Ireland — Florence Court in Northern Ireland | © National Trust Images/Matthew Antrobus

Florence Court was the country residence of the Cole family for more than 250 years. It is a material symbol of the Coles’ inexorable rise from opportunistic military adventuring to the ranks of the aristocracy. Generation after generation, they helped to create the Protestant Ascendancy in Ireland. The architecture, artworks, books and furnishings of Florence Court combine with its glorious landscape setting to tell their story.

Conquest and Plantation

Florence Court estate derived from lands originally held by Irish nobles in the Lordship of Fermanagh – predominantly the family of Maguire. The Cole family acquired it in a wave of British colonial expansion across Ireland in the later sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

The foundations of the Coles’ wealth and position were laid by the military adventurer Sir William Cole (c. 1576–1653.) After fighting for Elizabeth I in the Netherlands, Cole went on to join forces against the Irish alliance which was resisting English conquest of Ireland.

From 1612, Cole established the town of Enniskillen on the site of the principal stronghold of the Maguire lordship. This formed part of James I and VI’s scheme of Plantation, designed to colonise Ulster with Protestant English and Scottish settlers.

Through Plantation land grants and subsequent purchases, William Cole and his sons built up a considerable landholding. This included estates confiscated after a major Catholic uprising in 1641, when almost all Catholic landowners were removed from Fermanagh.

Moving upwards: establishing a country seat

By 1700, the Coles had become the leading landed family in Fermanagh. While this involved encouraging urban development and trade and ensuring security, it also came with certain social expectations. Socially and financially advantageous marriages played an important role in the family’s rising status.

Sir William Cole’s great grandson, Sir John Cole (1680–1726), married Florence Wrey of Trebitch, Cornwall in 1707. The wealth she brought undoubtedly assisted her husband in furnishing the family with a country house. Designed as a retreat for the milder months and the hunting season, it was an important symbol of rank. But by the time of Florence’s death in 1718, the house named for her may still have been unfinished.

A formally laid-out landscape provided an impressive setting for Florence Court, overlooked by the distinctive silhouette of Benaughlin Mountain. Long, straight avenues passed through a series of rectilinear parks, towards formal gardens surrounding the house. Remnants of some of these features survive today.

Florence Bourchier Wrey, married John Cole, builder of Florence Court, a portrait, English School, c.1705-15, at Florence Court, Co. Fermanagh, Northern Ireland. — Portrait of Florence Wrey, detail. English School, c.1705-15, National Trust Florence Court, County Fermanagh | © National Trust Images/John Hammond

Grand ambition

Sir John Cole was unable to realise the full extent of his aspirations for Florence Court during his lifetime. It was his son John (1709–67), 1st Baron Mountflorence, who was to rebuild on a grander scale in the 1750s and 60s.

Florence Court today is largely his conception. With its unusual blend of architectural features, it is quite possible that Lord Mountflorence himself contributed to the design, alongside an unknown architect or architect-mason. In general terms, however, the organisation of the complex of house and service buildings conformed to a fashionable, elite architectural style influenced by Andrea Palladio’s sixteenth-century villas in the Venetian countryside.

At John Cole’s death in 1767, the central block was complete and work was starting on arcaded wings and pavilions. These contained stables and agricultural offices on one side, kitchen and domestic services on the other.

By 1778, a ‘Mr King’ was working at Florence Court. It seems likely that William Cole (1736–1803), the future 1st Earl of Enniskillen, had commissioned either John or William King – Belfast nurserymen and landscape gardeners – to transform Florence Court demesne.

Green lawns now stretched away from the house, blending into parkland dotted with trees and fringed with woodland. A variety of views came and went along the course of winding carriage drives and walks. All of these elements came together in a carefully-crafted, ‘natural’ informality which can still be appreciated today.

Culture and politics

As the Coles continued to rise in society, they adapted to the norms of aristocratic society, including acquiring an appropriate cultural education. Following in the footsteps of his father, who had set off in 1756, John Cole (1768–1840), the future 2nd Earl of Enniskillen, made the Grand Tour in 1791-2. The portrait he had painted in Rome hangs in Florence Court today, alongside artworks he collected as mementos.

Back home and active as an MP, John Cole was described by a contemporary as ‘the Prince of Orange of County Fermanagh.’ Through 350 years of turbulent political and religious upheaval, commitment to Protestantism remained key to the Cole family’s identity, often with an anti-Catholic tendency. Florence Court contains several items with symbolic connections to William III. Many were acquired by the 3rd Earl of Enniskillen, Grand Master of the Orange Lodge and Institution from 1845 to 1886.

The Entrance Hall at Florence Court looking towards the door with its tripartite doorcase. An entablature with a frieze of triglyphs runs around the hall with rusticated Doric pillars. — The Entrance Hall looking towards the door with its tripartite doorcase at Florence Court, County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland | © National Trust Images/Andreas von Einsiedel

Embracing a new world of science

The 3rd Earl, William Cole (1807–86), was also a significant figure in a field of science which was questioning established views of the history of life on earth. He embraced the work of scholars such as Charles Darwin, whose evidence-based research was overturning Biblical traditions.

Cole became an expert on fossil fish, eventually building up a collection of nearly 10,000 specimens. In the 1830s, Florence Court’s kitchen pavilion was remodelled as a museum to house these fossils. Fellow scientists from all over Europe came to consult the collection, with Cole hosting intellectual gatherings and geological field visits.

Now in the Natural History Museum, William Cole’s specimens remain a key research resource. Many of the 3rd Earl’s scientific books remain on Florence Court’s library shelves, often containing personal dedications from their authors.

Keeping up to date: the mid-nineteenth century

The 3rd Earl invested heavily in the demesne and wider estate, modernising industrial practices in the 1840s. He established pottery works to turn local clay into bricks, drainage pipes and tiles. A new sawmill transformed trees into timber for everything from coffins to fence posts and gates, from railway sleepers to furniture. 

Near the house, Dublin-based botanist and landscape gardener James Fraser created a fashionable ‘American Garden.’ Exotic trees, rhododendrons and azaleas were scattered amongst sloping lawns, threaded through with winding paths. With her keen interest in gardens, the Countess, Jane Casamajor, was probably involved in these landscape developments.

Exterior of the two glasshouses in the Kitchen Garden at Florence Court, Co. Fermanagh — The Glasshouses in the Kitchen Garden at Florence Court | © National Trust / Ronan McGrade

Florence Court in decline

By the later nineteenth century, finances were becoming stretched. The marriage of Scottish coal-mining heiress Charlotte Baird to the future 4th Earl of Enniskillen provided a much-needed injection of cash. Her funds helped to modernise the interiors of Florence Court, and to improve the eighteenth-century walled gardens.

Overall, however, the estate was in decline, due in no small part to the 4th Earl’s expensive lifestyle and neglect of estate management. In addition, the Coles’ estates were drastically reduced by Land Acts aimed at addressing tenurial unrest. The associated loss of rental income, rising taxes and the effects of two world wars combined to make life at Florence Court unsustainable.

Florence Court and the National Trust

The 5th Earl (1876–1963) and his son, Viscount Cole, transferred the house and part of the demesne to the National Trust in 1954. The following year, a devastating fire inflicted considerable damage, with the loss of several flamboyantly decorative plaster ceilings. Some were recreated in a major restoration programme led by the architect Sir Albert Richardson, complementing the surviving craftsmanship of eighteenth-century stuccadores.

One of the Trust’s key initiatives has been revival of the walled gardens, in a long-term project which has benefited from thousands of hours of volunteer involvement. In 2023 glass houses were reintroduced to the garden, after an absence of half a century. They provide a welcome new focus for plant propagation and educational events.