Bride-to-be loses out on Dungiven venue

The young bride from Londonderry, due to get married in the coming weeks, had booked the famed castle for her wedding reception. But she has claimed she only discovered it had closed after driving past the boarded up building. The woman, who preferred not be named, is now in the process of claiming a 650 deposit for her wedding back from her credit card company.

"I had been driving through Dungiven with my mum when we looked over at the castle and seen the boards on the windows and doors. We had heard rumours but reality hit when we seen it."

The couple had paid the deposit in March to cater for up to 40 guests at their wedding. The soon-to-be bride says she had raised concerns to the owners on a number of occasions regarding the level of consultation for the big day, and had even enquired about cancelling before the venue had shut down.

"We paid the deposit in March and everything was fine. But after a while it just seemed that something just wasn't right. We had asked for a sample menu from the manager and told there wasn't any. It always seemed to be us doing the pushing. It got to the stage where we considered cancelling."

She continued: "By the end of May, the start of June we just thought that they weren't up to the job. The bare basics weren't being looked at. I enquired about cancelling around the end of June, but I only really wanted to do so if we were getting our deposit back. When I rang the castle to discuss that I was told the person in charge was on holidays and wouldn't be back for two weeks.

"When I rang back two weeks later, no-one answered. Then I drove past the boarded up building."

With weeks to go before the wedding the lady is now in the process of trying to claim back the money lost on booking the now closed venue.

"I used my credit card to put down the deposit so it can be claimed back if we can prove the venue has shut down. But we need something to say that it has closed down, and that's still ongoing."

"Apart from the deposit we haven't really been out any other money. The invitations had not went out thank goodness at the time so we didn't have to change those."

She continued: "I suppose at the last minute it's not what you need when trying to get everything together."

Dungiven Castle, which provided four star accommodation and dining, is leased by Glenshane Community Development Limited from Limavady Borough Council. It's former proprietor Donna Martin, who rented the building from GCD Ltd, disputed the bride-to-be's claims.

The former manager told the Sentinel: "The wedding in question was cancelled four months ago because the couple had decided on another venue."