Significant News from the Castle

After a false start when its original buyers backed out (owing to the cost of refurbishment), we understand that, as of yesterday, Ruthin Castle Hotel is now sold. Expect details to emerge in the next few days of a £5m sale to mystery buyers. No one has disclosed just who those deep pockets belong to but we'd speculate that it's either The Hotel Collection of Macclesfield or the people behind Cheshire's Nunsmere Hall and Peckforton Castle Hotels.

Whoever it is, remember that you heard about it here, first.

So, what do we know? First, the staff are safe—the new owners have said they will continue to employ the workforce. Secondly, there are plans for an indoor swimming pool of some sort (expect something grand). Thirdly, there are other significant refurbishment plans ahead.

Of course, we've heard all about investment before. The Saint Claires promised to do so when they bought the Ruthin Castle in 2004. The need to update the business saw them struggle. They nevertheless invested over £4m. In January 2013, they entered into a voluntary agreement with their creditors and this followed the ambitious, high cost upgrade to four-star standards and the addition in 2012 of the Moat Spa. It was in June 2014 that the hotel went into administration.

In July 2014, though, Ruthin Castle Hotel was almost immediately bought by Kepler Capital Ltd, the Prima Hotel Group and its existing management, who that year rescued the Castle. They, too, promised investment, including bringing 10 more rooms back into use. At the time, they said that the business had a "bright future" and that they were "confident about its future". The  Prima Hotel Group seems to have vanished off the face of the earth, perhaps into administration in 2015. One of its former acquisitions was Nunsmere Hall Hotel.

One of the issues facing the new owners is the standard of workmanship undertaken on the cheap during previous refurbishments.

Meanwhile, there continues to be the knotty question of the castle walls. In 2016, the owners and others formed a trust to deal with the walls and in 2017 Cadw stepped in to stabilise the medieval structure. Since then, the walls have gone into reverse and the trust seems moribund.