Castle Coole is a masterpiece of the purest Neo-classical building in Ireland. It was built to a design by James Wyatt between 1789 and 1795, with fine plaster ceilings made by Joseph Rose, and scagliola columns and pilasters by Domenico Bartoli, for Armar Lowry-Corry, 1st Earl Belmore (1740–1802) and further decorated opulently by his son, Somerset, 2nd Earl Belmore, in the Regency style, in preparation for a visit by George IV. It was transferred to the National Trust by the Ulster Land Fund in 1951. There is a delicate landscape by Nathaniel Hone the younger, the caricature conversation piece by a still unidentified artist (despite all the sitters in it being known) bought by John Armar, 8th Earl Belmore, from Castle Leslie, and the Castor and Pollux, signed and dated by Giovanni Battista Cipriani, 1783, which is one of three mythologies originally painted for George Walpole, 3rd Earl of Orford at Houghton Hall, the other two of which now hang at Spencer House, London.