Bantry House is one of the best-known historic houses in Ireland and has been open to the public since 1946.

It was once the principal seat of the Earls of Bantry, but latterly has been owned and run by the late Egerton Shelswell White and his wife Brigitte. Their eldest daughter Sophie has been general manager of the estate since 2010

“It is a wonderful house with an extraordinary history,” says Brigitte, whose husband’s family have lived in the house for over 300 years.

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“Selling the contents has been a very difficult decision but also an exciting and stimulating one.”

She says it’s always been a struggle to maintain the house.

“We closed to visitors for a year in 2003 to reassess our position. Out of necessity and because we couldn’t come up with a better answer, we opened again the following year.”

While they were able to work with the bank, financially things weren’t getting better. They looked for help from the State but only received letters of acknowledgement. There’s 90 acres around the house and selling that wasn’t an option.

Then the downturn happened and with that everything stopped.

“Tourism slowed and my husband became ill. He died 18 months ago and sadly the debts and worries didn’t go away. So the family were faced with three choices: sell the furniture and paintings bit by bit and limp on, sell everything and walk away or sell the contents and reinvent the house.”

“None of the family wanted to sell up and limping on wasn’t the answer either. Selling the contents is not as heartbreaking as you might think. We never had the Downton lifestyle. Home is the flat at the top of the house and there’s nothing grand about it,” says Brigitte.

Her eldest daughter Sophie agrees: “We were never reared with the grand things. We came downstairs to the business with people coming through the house all the time. The grand rooms are where we come to work and that makes all this easier. It also gives us the chance to look to the future and reinvent the house and our thinking of it.”

They hope to cater for more weddings. This year seven are booked in and they want to double that number. It will also give scope for bigger audiences for the West Cork musical festival. The house and gardens will continue to be open to the public.

Brigitte says the funds from the sale will inject a new energy into the house.

“I feel it will make it possible for Bantry House to have a future as a successful place, more in step with the times we live in.”

Items in the sale include many paintings, furniture and books collected by the second Earl of Bantry, including some exquisite French tapestries. One of the two Gobelins panels is said to have hung in the Palace of Versailles. A beautiful rose-coloured set of Aubussons are said to have been made by order of Louis XV for Marie Antoinette on her marriage to the Dauphin of France.

Among the furniture in the sale is a Russian household shrine which contains 15th and 16th century icons and an impressive pair of William Kent-style console tables.

The contents will be on view to the public from 17-20 October with the sale taking place at the house on 21 October. The sale is being conducted by Lyon and Turnbull and they can be contacted on + 44 (0) 131 557 8844 or www.lyonandturnbull.com CL