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Florence Court is a large 18th-century house and estate located south-west of Enniskillen, County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland. It is set in the foothills of Cuilcagh Mountain. The nearby village is distinguished by the one-word name Florencecourt. It is owned and managed by the National Trust and is the sister property of nearby Castle Coole. The other National Trust property in County Fermanagh is the Crom Estate.
The architects of the current house are unknown. The central block was built first and various dates from 1730 to 1764 are proffered for its construction. It has been attributed to the German architect Richard Cassels (or Castle) who worked at nearby Castle Hulme in 1728-9 and Florence Court shares similarities with some of Cassels' other Irish houses. An estate map of 1768 shows the central block, standing alone, as having a heavily framed oculus window (in place of the current pair of windows and large, squat niche) on the second floor. This was a recurring device in Cassels' work. Were Cassels involved, dating the initial phase of building to 1730 may be plausible. On the other hand, Mr Henry's account nine years later does not mention there being a new house, lately built. Rowan suggests the plans could have been drawn up by Cassels, but not executed until a much later date, pointing to the 'old fashioned' style of the house; and reflects that 'the design, for all its charm, is far too gauche for Cassels'.Rowan, Alistair, The Buildings of Ireland: North West Ulster (Comprising the Counties of Londonderry, Donegal, Fermanagh and Tyrone), Penguin, London, 1979 p.300
The baroque plasterwork in the library and study at the front of the house appear to date from an earlier period to the rich rococo plasterwork in the dining room, drawing room and stair hall on the western side of the house, and the floorboards in these two rooms differ in width from those elsewhere in the house. It is conjectured that the central block may have been completed in two phases, with the rooms at the back of the house, along with the Venetian room, finished by 1764, when John Cole's son, Lord Mount Florence, held a famous housewarming party.
The colonnades and pavilions were built c. 1771 and are attributed to the Italian engineer and architect Davis Ducart. These are built of dressed sandstone as opposed to the rendered limestone rubble of the central block. The south and stable yards are by the mason Andrew Lambert. The Introduction to the Enniskillen Papers proposes there may have been an addition stage to completing the front we know today, pointing out that the heavily rusticated window dressings may have been 'an afterthought by another, less accomplished hand'. They do not feature on the facade shown on the 1768 estate map; the introduction suggests further work may have been 'a vain attempt to harmonise the with the sophisticated cut-stone of the links and pavilions'.
Whether there was a final phase is a matter of conjecture. The 1979 National Trust guidebook points out the similarity between the unusual pedimented doorcase at Florence Court with the doorcase of the now ruinous Nixon Hall at nearby Gransha (built c. 1780). Major improvements were made on the estate c. 1778–80. These included the landscaping of the park by William King and his laying out of the new drive, and the building of the Grand Gates.
Florence Court was the seat of the Earls of Enniskillen until 1973. John Henry Michael Cole, 5th Earl of Enniskillen transferred the house and fourteen acres surrounding it to the National Trust in 1953. In 1955 a devastating fire destroyed the upper floors of the house. Sir Albert Richardson was entrusted with leading the National Trust's restoration and extensive efforts have since returned Florence Court to much of its former glory. Some rooms on the upper floors, however, remain closed.
The structure was rebuilt by the National Trust in the late-1980s to designs based on 19th-century photographs of the feature. The foundation and cobbled floor are the only parts of the 18th-century structure that remain. In 2015 the summer house was burnt to the ground by vandals. It was rebuilt in 2016, with a significant proportion of the funding for the project raised from the local community.
The yew is located within the site of the John Cole's early 18th-century gardens, approximately one mile southeast of the house. These formerly extensive gardens are now largely lost with the exception of the surviving remains of the 18th-century rock garden, located opposite the yew. The rock garden formerly contained stone tables and chairs but is currently overgrown.
The tennis courts behind the north wall were replaced by Forestry Service offices in the 1970s.
The Larganess and Finglass rivers flow through the estate, most of which is occupied by pasture and forestry, principally Larch. The Glen Wood nature reserve is a semi-natural oak woodland conserved by the Forestry Service near to the old deer park on the southwest edge of the demesne.
The south lodge is a picturesque one and a half story cottage built to replace an earlier lodge in the 1870s. The cottage is three bays wide with a front gabled porch, built from coursed rubble with dressed sandstone door and window surrounds. Quatrefoil bargeboards decorate the porch and side gables. The original sash windows have been replaced by simple modern glazing.
The Old Gate lodge at the end of the north avenue was built c. 1800. It was originally a single story three bay cottage, later extended to its present T plan.
The main part of the building is built of limestone rubble and dates to the 18th century. It was extended and converted to a sawmill in the 1840s. A brick extension housing an office was added later in the 19th century. The building's original use is unknown although several long vertical apertures along each side of the building have the appearance of gun loops and may indicate the building had an earlier military function, possibly as a barracks.
Lady Enniskillen, born Mary Cicely Nevill (daughter of Hugh Nevill), discovered the fire, which broke out during one of her husband's rare absences from home. After rushing downstairs to the servant's quarters to raise the alarm, she went to nearby Killymanamly House to telephone the elderly 5th Earl of Enniskillen (1876–1963), who was at the Ulster Club in Belfast, to tell him that the house was on fire. He is said to have cried "What the hell do you think I can do about it?".
Much of the damage to the interior of Florence Court was caused by the gallons of water pumped onto the flames. The dining room, with its exquisite plasterwork decoration, was saved only by the prompt action of local builders Bertie Pierce and Ned Vaughan who, on the instructions of Viola Grosvenor, later the Duchess of Westminster, drilled six holes in the flat part of the ceiling to allow the water which had accumulated on the floor above to quickly drain away and thereby preventing ceiling collapse. Two of these holes are still evident in the dining room today.
The fire was only one of a series of events in the 1950s and 60s at Florence Court which marked the end of an era for the house and family. Following World War II falling agricultural prices, rising wage costs, death duties and a drastic reduction of the size of the demesne, the lifestyle of the 5th Earl of Enniskillen and his second wife Mary (née Nevill), was increasingly difficult to sustain. To secure the long-term future of the house, Lord Enniskillen gave Florence Court to the National Trust in 1953. It was opened to the public the following year.
In 1956, the 5th Earl's only son and heir Michael, Viscount Cole, died suddenly aged 36; he was unmarried. In 1961, as the restoration of the house was nearing completion, Hurricane Debbie devastated the estate. In 1963, the 5th Earl and his wife, Lady Enniskillen, died within three months of each other.
The 5th Earl, upon his death, was succeeded by his nephew, Captain David Lowry Cole, (1918–1989), in 1963, who became the 6th Earl of Enniskillen. David Enniskillen (as he was popularly known) had spent much of his life in the Colony of Kenya, having been elected a member of the Legislative Council of Kenya in the early 1960s, just before independence. In 1955, he was divorced from his first wife Sonia (née Syers), stepdaughter of his uncle the 5th Earl (who died in 1963 with his wife, Sonia's mother). By her, he had issue: one son and one daughter.
David Enniskillen and his second wife, Nancy, Countess of Enniskillen (née Nancy MacLennan; formerly a diplomat with the United States Foreign Service), moved back to Florence Court, living there from 1964 until 1973. In that year, in the early years of The Troubles, the Earl and Countess of Enniskillen left Florence Court, moving over to Kinloch House in Kinloch, Perthshire, in Great Britain. David Enniskillen thus became the last Earl of Enniskillen to actually live in Florence Court. He was succeeded by his only son Andrew Cole, 7th Earl of Enniskillen, in 1989. Andrew Enniskillen continues to live on a country estate in Kenya. "Kenya considers the life and death of its game", Financial Times, accessed 11 February 2023
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