Ashford Castle (Ireland)

Ashford Castle is a medieval castle that has been expanded over the centuries and transformed into a five-star luxury near Congsulla Mayo / Galway border hotel in Ireland, on the shores of Lough Corrib. Ashford Castle is a member of the Leading Hotels of the World organization. It was previously owned by the Guinness family.

The castle was built on the site in 1228 by the Anglo-Norman Burke House.

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 owner, as a result of a fierce battle between the forces of the de Burgo and that of the Englishman Sir Richard Bingham employee , 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, the Browne Family (Baron Oranmore) has been held in a Royal Grant in 1670 is or 1678. In 1715, the estate of Ashford was established by the Browne family and a hunting lodge in the style of the seventeenth century, French castle was built. The Eagles to two heads still visible on the roof represent the coat of arms of the Brownes.

Towards the end of a branch of the family of the seventeenth century the castle inhabited. In the early nineteenth century, a Thomas Elwood was agent for the Brownes in Ashford and was registered as living there in 1814.