Ballynahinch Castle company makes pretax profit of €58,800

The company behind the Ballynahinch Castle hotel and grounds in Connemara, Co Galway, made a pretax profit of €58,800 in 2012, an improvement on the €170,078 loss it recorded the previous year.

Turnover for Ballynahinch Castle Inc, was €3.37 million, up from €3.10 million in 2011.The profit was used to reduce accumulated losses, which were €1 million at year’s end.

Shareholders
Ballynahinch Castle Inc is a Panamanian company registered in Ireland. The company owes €1.53 million to its shareholders, Raymond K Mason (86) and his wife, Minerva R Mason (88), who live in Florida in the US. It also has a bank loan of €1.6 million.

Mr Mason, from Jacksonville, Florida, was head of the Charter Company, a Fortune 500 conglomerate, for almost 40 years. The group was involved in oil, insurance and communications. The couple bought Ballynahinch Castle in the 1970s. The castle is on a 450-acre estate with walks, gardens, fishing and shooting, and the Masons are understood to spend a few months every year living on the estate.

In the 1980s a helicopter taking senior Charter Company executives from the castle to Shannon Airport crashed, with the loss of five lives, including four senior Charter executives. At the time Charter had a turnover of approximately $5 billion.

Appendices to the Ballynahinch Castle accounts show that turnover at the bar was €419,492 in 2012, producing a profit of €246,112, while turnover from meals was €1.17 million, producing a profit of €744,546.

Turnover from the rental of apartments was €1.6 million, producing an equivalent profit, while turnover at the shop was €31,660, producing a profit of €18,859. Fishing produced a turnover of €71,298 and shooting a turnover of €19,243, with these and other unspecified activities producing a combined turnover of €130,901, on which a profit of €118,889 was recorded.

Wages and salaries during the year were €1.35 million. Renovation expenditure on premises was €93,324. Repairs and renewals were €156,973.