Ashford Castle
Ashford Castle, Cong, Co. Galway, F31 CA48
About
The reason a lot of people have heard of Cong. A castle begun in 1228 by the Anglo-Norman de Burgos, bought by Sir Benjamin Guinness in 1852 and extended in Victorian and neo-Gothic phases by him and his son Lord Ardilaun, opened as a hotel by Noel Huggard in 1939 and bought by Red Carnation Hotels in 2013. It has 83 rooms and suites on a 350-acre estate, with a spa, a nine-hole course, a cinema and its own boat pier. Two things a visitor should know before planning around it. First, the estate grounds are not open to people who are not staying: the hotel's own guest information says so in as many words, and the travel blogs that tell you to stroll the grounds are out of date. Non-residents can book dining, and can book some estate activities, and that is the access. Second, and this catches almost everyone: the postal address is Cong, County Mayo, but the county boundary runs through the estate and the castle building itself stands in County Galway. The State's own architectural inventory files it under Galway.
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