Stately home contest owner dies

Hazel Dolling was an "extraordinary" woman

The owner of one of Northern Ireland's most famous stately homes has died.

Hazel Radclyffe-Dolling came to public prominence as her home, Lissan House, near Cookstown, made it to the final of the BBC's 2003 Restoration programme.

Ms Dolling, 84, was the last surviving member of the Staples family, who have owned the property since the 1600s.

BBC NI environment correspondent Mike McKimm, who interviewed Ms Dolling several times, said she was an "extraordinary woman".

"In that house she lived on her own with no electricity except that which was generated by a water wheel," he said.

"In the winter she had to get up and clear the ice from that and she cooked on gas on the third floor.

Lissan House was in the Staples family for 400 years

"It was a pretty bleak house in some ways but she was an amazing woman and it is so sad to know that she is no longer with us."

Mike McKimm said the house was safe in the sense that it was kept in trust, but needed work or it would "fall through and collapse".

Lissan House narrowly missed winning the multi-million pound prize in 2003.

It came second to the Victoria Baths in Manchester.

Lissan House had been the Staples' family home for 400 years - the longest occupation by any single family of a country house in Ireland.

The house was awarded a blue plaque to mark it as the former residence of the artist, Sir Robert Ponsonby Staples.