'Landmark' Dromoland Castle Redevelopment Tipped To Benefit Entire County

0:00It's certainly exciting and it's also a very proud moment for us. What we've achieved in the last 18 months of planning and the design is pretty remarkable, really. And it's great thanks to Claire County Council and their design team. They've been working very close together to make sure all the details were in order. That's we could make sure that the timelines that we were pushing for were met. And now it's no holding back. And we're ready to push on, yeah. So it's extremely exciting for us. Yeah, it's a real commitment to the tourism project you're offering, I suppose, when you look at what's going involved, obviously, the money is there. But to close down the hotel for six months to facilitate the work, it's a confidence in this redevelopment. I 100% look at the landmark moment for us and for Claire. It's about protecting Dremoulin's heritage. But at the same time, it's about creating that the next generation of luxury for the future

1:02and hopefully cementing the next 50 years of Dremoulin's estate. It's been an integral part of the community for a long time and I think the investment shown by our owners and the shareholders to continually reinvest in our product, not just this one up and coming one, but over the years has been significant. And yeah, we're very much looking forward to see what it can bring for the local area as well as for the county of Claire. And I suppose there's the confidence there, not just to attract people to stay overnight, but I suppose everything else that's offered between the castle grounds and the leisure center just to attract visitors as well. Oh, absolutely. Look, to me, Dremoulin castle was never just a castle. It's 500 acres of an estate. And it's one of the most magical places and I'm bit biased, obviously, but it's the reason I came back to work in Ireland was for Dremoulin castle when it was because it's such a special place. And I think it's a special place

2:03to not just to people of Claire, but to the state of Ireland. And it is extremely special. When you drive into that driveway, you can't help but get the kind of goose bump feeling when you turn and you see the castle, but you see the lake and you see the golf course. The woods, the deer's and everything that belongs to Dremoulin. It's a very, very special place. And you touched on the heritage of the site and you said that's a key parent of the development in keeping that alive. And I suppose in the designs of the new parents of the castle grounds that are really going to enhance the visitor experience. Most certainly yes. I think guests nowadays, they're not just there to stay in a bed in reality. Anybody can come stay in a bedroom and your bedroom probably at home is as gone more mod tech and better beds and better everything else than what you get inside a hotel room these days. So while our hotel rooms are going to be wrong, very luxurious and beautifully appointed and they will continue to be. So you come there for the experiencing of the product itself and our product

3:04is not just the hotel, not just the castle itself, it's the golf, it's the, it's going out in the boat on the lake. It's being able to go through a walk through the woods, doing a bit of archery, playing a bit of tennis and it's immersing yourself in what makes remodeling so special. And that's very much going to be a focal point for what we continue to do. And at the same time, it's trying to bring somewhat of what remodeling was in the past prior to becoming a hotel. It was a working estate. So we're reinvesting in our farm and making sure that our wall gardens are up kept and our third wall garden is being transformed into more of a kitchen working garden for our kitchens and on the estate. And that's just a reinforcement and of what people are looking for and understanding where their food comes from. And that will be obviously tied in with all the local suppliers that we already work with and will continue to work with. You've touched on already that it marks a new chapter I suppose in the history of the estate

4:05that the largest redevelopment in in the history of the estate, but also you mentioned it there as well. You're looking to the previous chapters I suppose to shape the future chapter that you're about to enter. Almost definitely. Most definitely. We are only a very small chapter in Dremolin's history and yes, we want to make sure that we are a significant part and be very much a strong, strong part of that story moving forward when people look back at it but we are just a small part and we need to look at what was before, what was done extremely well and how we continue that on and how we pay homage to them.