The US bank Goldman Sachs has taken control of a Co Westmeath castle and lands, in the latest addition to its interests in Ireland.
Ennis Property Finance, an Irish subsidiary of the bank, has appointed a receiver to Edward Estates, which owns Clonyn Castle and 125 acres of land at Delvin in Co Westmeath. The Goldman Sachs company acquired the Edward Estate loans when it bought a large loan portfolio from Bank of Scotland (Ireland) in 2015.
Shane McCarthy, of KPMG, has been appointed receiver to Edward Estates on foot of a mortgage charge originally granted to Bank of Scotland (Ireland) in 2006. Some of Clonyn land was developed as Delvin Castle golf club, which opened in 1992 but closed at the end of last year.
At the time, it was reported that the club was no longer a viable business. The castle and lands are owned by the Dillon family.
The Victorian baronial castle is a distinctive building with round towers on each corner. It was originally owned by the Baron Greville, who was Lord Lieutenant of Westmeath, and later owned by an order of nuns.
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The property was bought in the 1940s by a Manchester businessman, Yankel Levy, who hosted 100 Jewish children who had survived the Second World War at Clonyn for a year. Some of the survivors returned to visit in 2013 and were the subject of an RTE documentary.