2012 a strong year for Ashford Castle

The five-star Ashford Castle hotel in Co Mayo had a €2.34m excess of income over expenditure in its first year in receivership.

Joint receiver to the property, Luke Charleton of Ernst & Young said yesterday that 2012 “was a strong year operationally for Ashford Castle”, adding that the hotel will enjoy its strongest quarter in over 20 years in the current quarter.

Mr Charleton was commenting on new documents lodged with the Companies Registration Office confirming the hotel recorded 2.34m excess of receipts over expenditure between Nov 2011 and Nov 2012.

The hotel was the jewel in the crown of the Galway developer Gerry Barrett’s property and hotel empire, purchasing the hotel from a group of US investors for €50m in 2008.

However, in November 2011, Mr Charleton and David Hughes of Ernst & Young took control of the business when they were appointed as receivers to the property by Bank of Scotland (Ireland) Ltd and the hotel was put for sale last October (2012) with a guide price of €25m.

The castle, which dates from the 13th century, comprises of 83 bedrooms and is set within 365 acres.

Notable guests over the years include King George V of England, Ronald Reagan, Tony Blair, Oscar Wilde, John Wayne, John Lennon as well as more recently Pierce Brosnan and Brad Pitt.

The newly lodged receiver’s extract for the business shows that in the year to Nov 28, 2012, the hotel generated €11.53m in receipts compared with €9.19m in payments.

The performance of the exclusive hotel that employs 142 in the second half of the year was particularly strong, boosted by Notre Dame American football match in Dublin last September.