Game of Thrones stars Kit Harington & Rose Leslie win year-long battle to build luxury barn at £1.75m Tudor mansion
GAME of Thrones stars Kit Harrington and Rose Leslie have won their bitter battle to build a luxury barn at their £1.75million Tudor mansion.
The TV legends were embroiled in a year-long planning dispute after trying to convert a 15th-century barn at their home in Suffolk into a guest house.
Kit and Rose applied for a fancy games room, and new gates to protect the Grade II listed property from “trespassers”.
They said their privacy and security had been “continuously breached” since they moved into the farmhouse in 2017.
The local council has now finally approved their plans, which were filed in November 2023.
But the pair, who met playing Jon Snow and Ygritte in HBO fantasy hit Game of Thrones, encountered their fair share of issues along the way.
Their plans were previously halted by bats after the couple provided insufficient information about the animals roosting on their 8.2acre estate.
A delegated report from planning officers has now stated that while the restoration “will result in the loss of roosts for bats, it is proposed that the large storage barn within the site could be modified to become a compensation roost”.
It added: “Ecology is satisfied that there is sufficient ecological information to determine the application, subject to conditions.”
The couple submitted several measures to protect the bats within their plans, including low levels of light where they roost.
Planning officers said all the mitigation measures should be carried out in accordance with the proposals lodged.
Ecological experts Place Services, drafted in from Essex County Council, had previously stumped the whole operation after a bat survey revealed there were 39 common pipistrelle bat sightings on three separate occasions in 2022, with bats falling under protected species laws.
The creatures are protected under regulation 43 of the Conservation of Habitats and Species Regulations 2017, which makes it an offence to deliberately capture, kill or disturb certain wild animals.
Place Services, a public sector environmental consultancy that works with councils, said last year: “We are still not satisfied that sufficient ecological information is currently available for determination of this application.”
But the couple have now been given the green light, with protection measures set to be in place.
The pair moved to Suffolk after the county was recommended to them by friend Ed Sheeran.
They have been carrying out a series of renovation works on the £1.75million mansion since they first moved in eight years ago.
In 2020 they were given permission to add a number of modern features to their home.
And the following year Harington and Leslie – who have two children together – won a battle to build a new moat wall despite Historic England saying it could lead to the loss of ancient remains and artefacts.
The property currently contains a swimming pool, tennis court, pavilion and croquet lawn.
The Sun exclusively revealed the pair got engaged in September 2017.
Kit and Rose then married in Scotland at her family’s castle in Aberdeen in front of 200 pals on June 23, 2018.
Among the guests at Rosie’s 12th-century family castle were Emilia Clarke and Peter Dinklage who both starred in the HBO series.
Rose shot to fame in the first ever series of Downton Abbey.
She then went on to win acclaim for her portrayal of Jon Snow’s wildling lover Ygritte in the HBO fantasy epic series.
But after three seasons on the show her character was killed off in a tragic scene which saw her struck by an arrow, spending her last living moments in the arms of Jon.
During her time on the show, she appeared alongside the rugged Harington, the brooding Lord Commander, and in 2012 their romance continued off-screen.
In 2021, Rose starred in BBC One’s Vigil alongside Suranne Jones.