Lissan House

Lissan House Estate open daily, house tours and events advertised on FB. Tickets available at front of the house. Keep an eye on our social media for further updates.

Lissan House, 400 years of history, 260 acres of woodland walks, totally volunteer run so every penny fundraised or donated goes towards keeping this valuable community space here. Lissan House

Opening Times

Grounds

Monday-Sunday 9am to 8pm (Spring/Summer)
Monday-Sunday 9am to 6pm (Autumn/Winter)

Lissan Legends Trail

Open Good Friday, Easter Saturday, Easter Sunday and Easter Monday, 11am to

4pm.

£4 per person. For group bookings of 10 plus please email [email protected]

Coffee Dock

Pitch available for rent. Email [email protected] for details. House Tours

Open Good Friday, Easter Saturday, Easter Sunday and Easter Monday, 1pm and 3pm. Adult £7, children £3. For group bookings please email [email protected]

For this week's Wildlife Wednesday post we're back to the orange tip butterfly again! A small patch of garlic mustard pl...
03/06/2026

For this week's Wildlife Wednesday post we're back to the orange tip butterfly again! A small patch of garlic mustard plant near the carpark is currently host to a large number of orange tip caterpillars, in picture 2 you'll see one beside an unhatched egg. The caterpillars are carnivorous so once that wee boy hatches he probably won't survive for long!
Also on this one plant, a lovely ladybird and some cuckoo spit, the frothy protection for nymphs of the tiny common froghopper.
Look at what we lose when we mow or spray our native wildflowers. Let's all rethink our attitude to "weeds" and favour these over showy, non native "wildflower" seed mixes, designed to please humans but of little benefit to our wildlife.





It's Volunteer Week, and, inspired by this fabulous old photograph of estate workers around 1890, we thought we'd have a...
02/06/2026

It's Volunteer Week, and, inspired by this fabulous old photograph of estate workers around 1890, we thought we'd have a bit of craic!
It took a small village of people to keep the estate going then and today it's no different - Lissan House is totally volunteer run, from directors to tour guides, those who clean, bake, mow, build.... it's an endless list and not a penny is paid in wages.
Get in touch if you'd like to join the volunteer team, visit our website to make a donation, or set up a monthly £5 direct debit to help us meet our running and insurance costs, keeping the house and estate here for everyone to enjoy.




Who knew? Today is National Go Barefoot Day! No need to tell our Ponsy, "the barefoot baronet", he was doing it for year...
01/06/2026

Who knew? Today is National Go Barefoot Day! No need to tell our Ponsy, "the barefoot baronet", he was doing it for years! Hazel's grandfather, the renowned artist Sir Robert Ponsonby Staples, believed that leather soles would block the beneficial natural electricity from the earth. He would often walk barefoot on the tramlines for an extra boost of electricity!



This week's wildlife Wednesday story - we noticed this wee beauty for the first time this weekend, growing in the stone ...
27/05/2026

This week's wildlife Wednesday story - we noticed this wee beauty for the first time this weekend, growing in the stone wall near the great barn. Identified as Erinus Alpinus, but with the lovely common name, Fairy Foxglove. How could you not love that!
Native to the rocky mountains of central and southern Europe, it is not very common in Ireland, and we were delighted to discover it.


Thanks to the visitors to the estate this morning who alerted us to this - a disposable barbeque from a May day family d...
26/05/2026

Thanks to the visitors to the estate this morning who alerted us to this - a disposable barbeque from a May day family day out, irresponsibly left behind to smoulder on a wooden picnic table after everyone has enjoyed relaxing on the lawn! A potential fire risk, and more work for us repairing or fundraising to replace.
Thankfully most of our visitors treat the estate with respect, but we will be reviewing our guidelines and updating where necessary 😞

24/05/2026

May is National Walking Month and we were delighted to welcome Dungannon and District Rambling Club and Kerry from Ulster Federation of Rambling Clubs to Lissan House this week. A pre walk recce with one of our team to help plan the route ensured the route suited the needs of the group, and all enjoyed seeing our beautiful ancient woodland.
We are happy to meet walking group leaders considering a visit to the Lissan House estate, providing a walk with built and natural heritage to give your group something extra, something different.
Contact us for further details.

A big job ticked off the (very long) to do list yesterday - the guttering on the long passage has been in dire need of a...
24/05/2026

A big job ticked off the (very long) to do list yesterday - the guttering on the long passage has been in dire need of a clear out, what a transformation! Fundraising our running costs is our first priority, if we don't cover those we lose this place. We also need to balance that with taking time to carry out maintenance jobs like this to help preserve the building.
All of this work is undertaken by volunteers, local people giving their time to keep Lissan House here for everyone to enjoy.




Great to see the Rainbows, Brownies and guides from 1st Loy Guides enjoying the estate recently. No better place to enjo...
22/05/2026

Great to see the Rainbows, Brownies and guides from 1st Loy Guides enjoying the estate recently. No better place to enjoy nature activities, the Lissan estate has an abundance of native trees and wildlife, we are truly blessed that Hazel gifted this wonderful resource to the community.
Contact us if you want more info on what we can offer your group, totally volunteer run, a very special place.

Following the previous post, spotted this female orange tip butterfly in the deer park field this morning, you can also ...
22/05/2026

Following the previous post, spotted this female orange tip butterfly in the deer park field this morning, you can also see a tiny orange egg on the ladies smock stem. Only the male butterfly has the orange wing markings, both have that lovely mossy green marbling on the underside.



A Wednesday wildlife story - mowing is kept to a minimum on the Lissan House grounds, giving nature a chance to thrive. ...
19/05/2026

A Wednesday wildlife story - mowing is kept to a minimum on the Lissan House grounds, giving nature a chance to thrive. Look closely at our ladies smock flowers in front of the ballroom, do you see the tiny orange egg? That will hatch into an orange tip butterfly caterpillar which will feed on the plant stem, pupate and emerge next spring as a butterfly. Ladies smock is one of the few flowers which support this species, we have lost 97% of our meadows since the 1930s due to modern farming and drainage of wetlands. That's loss of habitat for this flower, loss of this butterfly amongst many other species dependent on meadows.
Leave a little patch wild if you can, "nature isn't tidy"





Address

Drumgrass Road
Cookstown
BT809SW

Opening Hours

Monday 9am - 8pm
Tuesday 9am - 8pm
Wednesday 9am - 8pm
Thursday 9am - 8pm
Friday 9am - 8pm
Saturday 9am - 8pm
Sunday 9am - 8pm

Website

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