Ashford Castle for keeps at €25 million

ASHFORD CASTLE, Ireland’s most spectacular hotel and resort, is to be offered for sale on the international market at half the price paid for it five years ago.

Tom Barrett of Savills is quoting a guide price of €25 million for the five-star hotel in Co Mayo which was placed into receivership a year ago by its owner, Galway businessman Gerry Barrett.

Luke Charleton and David Hughes of Ernst Young are joint receivers to the castle which sits on 365 acres overlooking Lough Corrib beside Cong village.

Mr Barrett bought the hotel from a group of Irish-American investors in 2008 for €50 million. Most of the funds were provided by Bank of Scotland (Ireland) which was closed down last year by its UK parent company, Lloyds. The bank’s Irish loan book reached €30 billion during the property boom.

Mr Barrett’s company, Edward Holdings, continues to operate the G Hotel and the Meyrick Hotel (formerly the Great Southern Hotel) in Galway and the D Hotel in Drogheda.

Ashford Castle is understood to have made a significant profit in the past year, largely because it gets higher room rates – these can vary between €400 and €950 per night during the peak season – than any other hotel in Ireland.

A big proportion of its holiday trade comes from the United States where it regularly attracts favourable publicity in the major newspapers and magazines.

Only recently it was voted the best resort in Ireland and third best in Europe in Condé Nast Traveller. The same readers’ choice awards put the Mayo resort ahead of Villa d’Este on Lake Como and Gleneagles in Scotland.

“Not only is Ashford Castle the most prestigious name in Irish hotels but it constantly figures in the top 100 hotels and resorts in the world,” says Tom Barrett.

Ashford has for decades been one of the jewels in the crown of the Irish tourist industry along with Parknasilla in Co Kerry – recently sold to an overseas buyer for more than €10 million – and Dromoland Castle and Adare Manor in Co Clare. There is a constant demand for accommodation in these castles from well heeled American tourists.

Ashford has 83 bedrooms including six suites, all with their individual styles and fit-outs. In recent years a master plan for the estate envisaged the development of 13 further penthouse bedrooms, 30 residential lodges in the grounds and the upgrading of the nine-hole golf course to an 18-hole venue.

A new owner may well proceed with this expansion but is unlikely to tamper with much of the public area including the main drawingroom, diningroom or bar which retain the charm, style and dignity of another era. There’s a lot of oak panelling, exquisite antiquities and fine antique furnishings, large wood-carved fireplaces and dressers, family crests and patterned carpets.

And there’s the George V diningroom commemorating the visit of the then Prince of Wales. He was by no means the only celebrity to stay in Ashford. A whole room in the castle is devoted to photographs of guests from Princess Grace to Gene Autry, former US president Ronald Reagan, Brad Pitt, John Lennon, George Harrison, Oscar Wilde and Pierce Brosnan, whose wedding and reception took place in the hotel.

Long before that Ashford Castle provided the backdrop to The Quiet Man, the 1952 Irish-American technicolour romantic comedy-drama starring John Wayne, Maureen O’Hara, Victor McLaglen and Barry Fitzgerald.

Originally built as a crenellated castle in the 13th century and rebuilt as a hunting lodge by the Guinness family in the 1800s, Ashford Castle was converted into a hotel in 1939 and remains one of the finest and most luxurious castle hotels in Europe.

ASHFORD CASTLE DOWN THE YEARS:

ORIGINS

Ashford Castle was founded almost 800 years ago by the Anglo-Norman House of Burke and was extended and upgraded over the years by a range of owners including the Guinness family.

ADDITIONS

The most significant addition was the French chateau section completed in 1715. Two Victorian extensions followed in 1852 along with terraced gardens, follies and fountains.

ESTATE

The Ashford estate had no fewer than 26,000 acres at that stage but was considerably smaller by the time Ernest Guinness sold it in 1939 to businessman Noel Huggard. He had trained in his parent’s hotel in Waterville, Co Kerry, and opened Ashford Castle as a hotel to cater mainly for sportsmen interested in angling and shooting.

SILVER SCREEN

Ashford was catapulted on to the international stage in the 1950s when John Forde came to the estate to film the movie classic The Quiet Man.

RECENT HISTORY

In 1970 the 365-acre estate was bought by hotelier John Mulcahy who oversaw its restoration and expansion, doubling its size with the addition of a new wing.

A group of Irish and American investors including Tony O’Reilly and Chuck Feeney, purchased Ashford Castle in 1985. They sold it in 2007 for €50 million to Galway-based developer Gerry Barrett.