Coolamber Manor, Cloonshannagh, Co. Longford

Coolamber Manor's giant order pilasters, marching between the bays of its two main facades and wrapping the corners, along with a prominent eaves cornice and blocking course hiding the roofline, give it a stepped, almost delicate profile more readily associated with the Victorian seafronts of Dun Laoghaire or Monkstown than with rural County Longford. The effect is heightened by a full-height three-bay bow on the east elevation, which announces itself dramatically to anyone approaching along the main avenue. Inside, the plan is unusual too: the stair hall sits off to the west side of the house rather than centrally, lit by an enormous round-headed window fitted with tripartite timber sash windows, a quietly theatrical touch for what is, structurally, a fairly conventional Regency block.

The house was built around 1830 to designs by John Hargrave, an architect who left a considerable mark on Longford during the 1820s, working on the governor's house at Longford Town Jail, alterations at Ardagh House, the rebuilding of St. Paul's Church of Ireland at Newtown-Forbes, and remodelling work at Castle Forbes, among other commissions now variously altered or lost, such as Doory Hall and Farragh House. His client at Coolamber was Major Samuel Wesley Blackhall, born in 1809, who went on to a career that ranged well beyond Longford; he served as High Sheriff of the county in 1833 and as its MP from 1847 to 1851, before taking up posts as Lieutenant-Governor of Dominica, Governor of Sierra Leone, and finally Governor of Queensland, where he died in 1871. The house may have replaced an earlier Blackall family residence on the same ground. Later occupants included Major Robert Blackall, recorded here in the 1840s and himself a High Sheriff of Longford in the late 1850s and early 1860s, followed by the Stanley family and then the Wingfields. Extensions were added to the southwest around 1880, and the house was sold around 1960, subsequently serving for some years as a rehabilitation clinic before falling out of use.

Approaching the house today still follows the pattern Hargrave designed for: a long avenue leading from a gateway to the southeast, marked by rendered gate piers with garland panels and carved pineapple finials, though the original gates themselves are gone. Flanking walls with cast and wrought iron railings sweep away to a second pair of piers, giving a sense of the scale of the demesne even before the house itself comes into view on its elevated site. The complex of outbuildings and the walled garden to the northwest, once integral to the working estate, remain part of the wider group, though the house has stood empty since its clinic days ended.