In parkland and mature woods on the shores of Lough Conn, Enniscoe can sometimes seem stern and gaunt, as Georgian mansions in the north-west of Ireland tend to be but, with family portraits, crackling log fires, warm hospitality and good home cooking, this hospitable house has great charm.
With its lovely meadow in the foreground, this timeless Blue Book property features on the cover of our most recent ‘Best of the Best’ guide. It was our Country House of the Year in 2021 and is the special place where President Biden and his family chose to have a private day on their recent visit to Ireland, which must have provided some fascinating downtime in a busy schedule. The North Mayo Heritage Centre is on site and they also visited the restored walled gardens and dined at the house, which is known for its genuine hospitality and deliciously natural food.
It was built by ancestors of the present owner, Susan Kellett, who settled here in the 1660s, and has since been nurtured by each generation. Susan's mother, the artist Patita Bourke Nicholson, left a particularly interesting and poignant legacy in her paintings of family scenes set against the property and the magnificent North Mayo landscape, and it is a very special place for anglers and all visitors with a natural empathy for the untamed wildness of the area.
Large public rooms include a fine drawing room, with period details and plenty of seating, and a more intimate dining room, where delightfully simple dinners are served.
Menus change daily and make good use of home-grown and local produce in dishes like pan-fried scallops with Madeira dressing and rocket salad and a delicious house speciality of roast free-range pork; homely desserts like rhubarb and orange crumble to finish, and cheeses laid out on the sideboard - as they are again next morning, as part of an excellent breakfast.
Traditionally furnished bedrooms are large, very comfortable and, like their en-suite bathrooms, regularly refurbished.
There is much of interest around converted outbuildings at the back of the house, including The North Mayo Heritage Centre, specialising in genealogy and family history research (Tel: 096 31809), a small agricultural museum with working blacksmith, and conference facilities.
The house is surrounded by beautiful woodlands, with a network of paths, and there are restored walled gardens (both ornamental and productive - one is run commercially as an organic market garden), which are open to the public and have tea-rooms and a shop.
A relatively recent addition is a working run of an old bog railway; the first section, with its little platform, is operational and there are plans to extend it.
There is brown trout fishing on Lough Conn and other trout and salmon fishing nearby; boats, ghillies, tuition and hire of equipment can be arranged.
*Enniscoe has been selected for a number of the Guide’s awards at different times, an unusual example is the Food eXtra Award in 2008, for an outstanding all-round contribution to the hospitality of the area, with special emphasis on food.
