Ashford Castle

Ashford Castle is a medieval castle near Cong in County Galway, Ireland, on the shore of Lough Corrib. Geographically the castle is located in Co. Galway on the southern side of the Cong River but has a County Mayo postal address. The castle was built in 1228 by the Anglo-Norman de Burgo family following their defeat of the O'Connors, the Royal House of Connacht, who are still extant in the person of The O'Connor Donn. The de Burgo's would build several such castles throughout the province, including one on the mouth of the River Corrib around which was to grow the City of Galway, but Ashford would remain their principal stronghold in the vastness of a wild and untamed province. The principal legacy of the native O'Connors is to be seen at the gates of the estate in the form of the magnificent Romanesque Augustinian Abbey of Cong. It is in this abbey that Ireland's last High King Ruaidrí Ua Conchobair died and from which came the greatest relic of his Court, the Cross of Cong, created to hold a piece of the True Cross and now in the National Museum of Ireland. After more than three and a half centuries under the de Burgos, whose surname became Burke or Bourke, Ashford passed into the hands of a new master, following a fierce battle between the forces of the de Burgo's and those of the English official Sir Richard Bingham, Lord President of Connaught, when a truce was agreed. In 1589, the castle fell to Bingham, who added a fortified enclave within its precincts. In 1715, the estate of Ashford was established by the Browne Family (Baron Oranmore), and a lodge in the style of a 17th-century French chateau was added to the medieval splendour of the castle. HOTEL : The Castle passed to Ardilaun's nephew Ernest Guinness, who sold it to Noel Huggard in 1939. He opened the estate as a hotel, which became renowned for the provision of its country pursuits, such as angling and shooting. In 1951, the film director John Ford came to the west of Ireland to film what would become a movie classic The Quiet Man starring John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara. The grounds of Ashford Castle as well as nearby Cong formed the backdrop for much of the action in the film. In 1970, Ashford Castle was bought by John Mulcahy, who oversaw its complete restoration and expansion, doubling its size with the addition of a new wing in the early 1970s, building a golf course and developing the grounds and gardens. In 1985, a group of Irish American investors, which included Chuck Feeney, purchased Ashford. The Castle was sold by these investors for €50m. in 2007, and is now in the possession of the Galway-based property investor Gerry Barrett and his family.^[2] While some of Mr Barrett's extensive property loans will be managed by the Irish National Asset Management Agency (NAMA), Ashford was financed by a bank outside the NAMA scheme.^[3] In its time the castle has played host to many notable guests, including: John Lennon, George Harrison, King George V of the United Kingdom, his consort Queen Mary, Oscar Wilde (whose father, Sir William Wilde, had an estate adjacent to Ashford, where the writer spent much of his childhood), LPGA Golfer Mindy Miller, U.S. President Ronald Reagan, H.R.H. The Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex, U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy, John Wayne, Brad Pitt, Pierce Brosnan, H.S.H. The Prince Rainier III of Monaco and his consort, H.S.H. The Princess Grace. Source: Wikipedia