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Updated at 12.33pm
THE WATERFORD CASTLE Hotel, complete with gargoyle-laden turrets and an 18-hole golf course, could be yours for the princely sum of €4.5 million.
But you might want to ask for a discount on that asking price – former guests say the property is haunted.
The historic property is being spruiked to cashed-up international buyers after bad bank Nama put its owners into receivership.
The only access to the castle, which is perched on the private, 310-acre island on the River Suir in Co Waterford, comes via a 2-minute boat ride on the Mary Fitzgerald Ferry from the mainland.
Agent Marcus Magnier, from Colliers International, said whoever bought the property would probably want to develop it further – replacing the ferry and expanding the hotel’s function and sports facilities.
Or of course you could just live it up in the 19-bedroom castle, which also includes the award-winning Munster Room restaurant and a bar.
Elsewhere on the property there is a golf clubhouse and the most recent addition: 48, 3-bedroom garden lodges.
A lot of history
The island was in the hands of the Fitzgerald family for nearly 800 years, but the bulk of the current castle was built in the late 19th century on the site of a former Norman keep.
The Fitzgeralds first sold the island in 1958, but the castle wasn’t developed into a luxury hotel and golf club until 1987 when Waterford entrepreneur Eddie Kearns took over the property.
In 1997 it was sold on to a business consortium, but Nama put the property in receivership after the property bubble burst and the business became unviable under a mountain of debt.
TheJournal.ie understand the owners had hoped to reap as much as €600,000 from investors for each of the recently-built 48 lodges on the property – but that never happened.
With recent overseas interest in Irish trophy properties, like Humewood Castle in Co Wicklow, which sold to the US property baron John Malone, Colliers are hoping to reap more than €4.5 million for the Waterford complex.
So about those ghosts…
The story goes that one of the castle’s former Fitzgerald family residents – possibly Mary Fitzgerald, its last custodian – still haunts the property.
In a video on the history of the property, former manager Gillian Butler said people staying in the hotel had reported some “presence” around them.
I have never experienced anything but I have heard from guests that they have experienced some presence … all very pleasant and all very happy to have people stay here for us,” she said.
“I do think with the history and the people that have lived here there’s bound to be some presence there.”
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