Castle hotels Ireland, Ballynahinch Castle Hotel Connemara Galway Ireland

Ballynahinch Castle is steeped in a wealth of tradition and has been intertwined in the history of Connemara and its people for many centuries.

5 night holiday to Ireland to attend the annual Ranji Trophy cricket match
July 2010
Arrive on Saturday 24th July, stay two nights in the luxury 5 star Dylan Hotel in Dublin’s
leafy Ballsbridge district. Attend the Ranji Trophy Ireland on Sunday afternoon July 25th in Trinity College.
Free access to the Book of Kells on Sunday before the game. Monday following breakfast depart for
Ballynahinch Castle. Enjoy three nights in Connemara experiencing the splendour and beauty which so captivated Ranji.
A guided and narrated walk of this beautiful estate also included.

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Prince Ranjitsinhji, Maharajah of Nawanager, cricketing superstar, on July 17th 1924 became the first head of state to make an official visit to the newly-founded Irish Free State. Ranji as he was fondly known met with Ireland's first Taoiseach, W.T. Cosgrave in Dublin and travelled West on his private train carriage to Ballynahinch Castle as guests of the Berridge Family, who owned the estate at the time  in pursuit of his passion for fly-fishing. Ranji fell in love with Ballynahinch & Connemara and felt so at home in the area he purchased the estate from the Berridge's and returned to Connemara every year until his death in 1932.

Ranji's purchase of Ballynahinch was a welcome boost to both the locality, with his employment of locals, and to the Irish State, with his promotion of Ireland as a holiday destination. Ranji was loved by the local community and each year they marked his arrival with great celebration, lighting bonfires and placing fire crackers on the railway line to announce his arrival. He was also a big supporter of the Connemara Pony Breeders Association and attended the Roundstone Pony Show each year. 

It was Ranji who was responsible for the most of the landscaping of the gardens and woods, plus the erection of the fishing piers and huts along the river, all of which can still be seen today. Also on display in the hotel is his fishing register showing his "catch" for each summer he spent in Connemara.

To commemorate Ranji's promotion of Irish-Indian relations, Anne Chambers, author of Ranji: Maharajah of Connemara, has donated a trophy (The Ranji Trophy)  for an annual cricket match to be played between an Irish and Indian X1 in his memory. It was developed into a fully fledged trophy by India's Ambassador in Dublin P.S. Raghavan who wants to see it as a big event within the context of the growing ties between India and Ireland. The match will now be part of the Irish cricket calendar as Ambassador Raghavan persuaded Trinity College Dublin to incorporate the event annually as part of a recently-established South Asia Initiative developing academic links with the Indian sub-continent.  

The first match took place on Sunday 26th July 2009 on the cricket grounds of Trinity College, Dublin with a place on the Indian X1 by no means guaranteed, as there are at least 100 to 150 of the estimated 25,000 people of Indian origin living in Ireland playing cricket at club level. Ballynahinch are delighted to now sponsor this event and in particular were thrilled to provide a player for the Irish X1, Estate Manager, Simon Ashe.

The match was won by the Indian X1, with the final score Indian X1 - 163 runs for 10 wickets, Ireland X1 -  88 runs for 9 wickets.

L-R) The Indian Ambassador to Ireland, P.S. Raghavan; Captain, India XI, Neil Bhandari ; Representative of TCD's South Asia Initiative, Professor David Dickson; Author of Ranji Maharajah of Connemara, Anne Chambers; Captain, Ireland XI, Alan Ruddock.