Ashford Castle is an Irish manor house located near the village of Cong and, although the latter is part of County Mayo, the castle is in County Galway. The castle is bordered by the Cong River and today it can be visited together with its park, it also houses a luxury hotel.
It served as the location for the film A Quiet Man and for the interiors of the TV series Reign.
This medieval castle, located in County Mayo in Ireland, is one of the most beautiful in the whole of the Emerald Isle. The fort, which is more of a palace than anything else, is located on the banks of Lough Corrib and was built in the 13th century, by an Anglo-Norman family. Already in the 18th century, it passed to the Guinnesses, who sold it in 1945.
The castle was built on the site in 1228 by the Anglo-Norman House of Burke.
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 de Burgo and that of the English employee 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.
Dominick Browne, of the Browne family (Baron Oranmore) received the estate in a Royal Grant in either 1670 or 1678. In 1715, the Ashford estate was established with the Browne family and a hunting lodge in the style of a 17th century, French castle was built. The double-headed eagles still visible on the roof represent the Brownes coat of arms.
Towards the end of a branch of the seventeenth century family inhabited the castle. In the early 19th century, a Thomas Elwood was an agent for Brownes in Ashford and was recorded as living there in 1814.
The estate was bought in 1852 by Sir Benjamin Lee Guinness of the Court Estates encumbered ”. He has added two large Victorian style extensions. He also extended the 26,000-acre (110 km 2) estate, built new roads and planted thousands of trees.
The castle was designed for Sir William Wilde's book on County Galway. Upon Benjamin's death in 1868, the property passed to his son Lord Ardilaun who further expanded the neo-Gothic style building.
Lord Ardilaun was a passionate gardener who oversaw the development of huge woods and rebuilt the entire west wing of the castle, designed by architects James Franklin Fuller and George Ashlin. The new building connected to the early part of the eighteenth century to the east with two towers de-Burgo-vaulted the West. Battlements have been added to the whole castle.
Ashford Castle
Address: Ashford Castle Drive, Leaf Island
Phone: +353 94 954 6003
Site:
https://ashfordcastle.com/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=local&utm_campaign=hotelLocation inserted by
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