The five-star hotel resort Carton House, which recently hosted a Manchester United training camp, returned to an operating profit of €1.26m last year.
New consolidated accounts for Belmullet Hospitality Group Ltd that operates Carton House Hotel, Golf and Spa Resort on 1,100 acres of parkland in Maynooth, Co Kildare show that the business recorded the operating profit of €1.26m after sustaining an operating loss of €382,035 for the prior year.
The return to operating profit followed revenues increasing by 9.5% from €22.78m to €24.96m in 2025.
The directors state that “there have been significant changes in the performance of the business in 2025”.
They state that “during the year, the business delivered increased sales across the resort. Despite the increasing costs of supplies, labour and inflation, the business achieved reduced costs and increased operational profits”.
In a further boost to the performance of the resort last year, Carton House’s Morrison Room restaurant was awarded a coveted Michelin star in February of last year and the restaurant retained the Michelin star in February of this year.
In April of this year, Manchester United fans turned out in strong numbers to see their heroes train during a three day training camp at Carton House as part of the team’s preparation for the Premier League run-in.
The resort has regularly hosted training camps for the Irish men’s rugby team and the venue enhanced its reputation in the sporting arena when hosting the 2025 and 2024 KPMG Women’s Irish Open at the resort’s O’Meara golf course.
The group recorded a pre-tax loss of €1.65m after taking into account non-cash depreciation costs of €2.29m and interest charges of €626,204.
The pre-tax loss of €1.65m for last year was down 52% on the pre-tax loss of €3.47m for 2024.
Numbers employed by the resort last year decreased from 295 to 272 as staff costs increased from €10.97m to €11.36m.
A note attached to the accounts states “a letter of support has been received from these owners and the owners are committed to maintain significant investment and support to this valuable asset and business over the coming years, by funding working capital, interest commitments and debt repayments as required”.
The owners continued to invest in the business last year with the firm paying out €625,605 to acquire tangible assets and this followed an outlay of €1.69m under the same heading in the prior year.
The book value of the group’s fixed assets at the end of 2025 totalled €67.8m.
The hotel resort was sold by the Mallaghan and Kelly families to Irish American businessman John Mullen for around €57m in 2017 and it re-opened and relaunched in June 2021 as a Fairmont Managed Hotel.
At the end of December last, the group had shareholder funds of €28.26m made up of called up share capital of €57m offset by accumulated losses of €28.73m.
The business’s cash funds increased from €2.96m to €3.28m.
The group owed €8.4m in a bank loan at the end of December last year and €26.68m to group undertakings.
Reporting by Gordon Deegan
