Cash prize for entrepreneurial spirit

STRANGE things are afoot at Dromquinna Manor ear Ken mare, Co Kerry

STRANGE things are afoot at Dromquinna Manor ear Ken mare, Co Kerry. It is not often that a £50,000 reward is offered to someone who can train a ghost - but that is what the owner, Mr Mike Robertson, has done.

Staff and guests at his hotel, which overlooks the Kenmare Estuary, have reported sightings of ghosts. If every story is to be believed, there are three spectres roaming about the ghosts of a young girl and two men. Strange noises are reported in the dead of night when all should be quiet and peaceful. There is only one thing for it, says Mr Robertson, a ghost watch.

He and his wife, Sue, run the hotel, but he dismisses talk of ghosts as mere tosh and nonsense. He has named the three ghosts Guinness, Lager and Imagination. And the ghosts, he adds, are friendly.

Insofar as they exist at all, they haven't harmed his business. Staff recalled guests who left in a hurry after a sighting and others who couldn't wait to get to Dromquinna for an encounter of the first kind.

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The interest has been so great that Mr Robertson thinks it would be nice if the ghosts could appear on cue for the guests: "There will be an appearance in the Great Hall tonight at 10", that kind of thing. However, he needs a ghost trainer to make this possible - hence the £50,000 offer.

He came to Kenmare having handed over a business worth £100 million a year to his son, Bruce. The Trago Mills retail outlets in the UK, based mainly in Cornwall and Devon, were the source of his fortune. But he divested himself of all his wealth, including stocks and shares.

"Officially, I was penniless, and I had to rely on Bruce's generosity to buy Dromquinna Manor for me in June 1989," he said. He then set about turning a derelict building into a remarkable tourist venture with fine restaurants, rolling parklands and water sports facilities.

But the ghosts. By midnight there was no appearance - not even in the Great Hall with its panelled walls and sombre atmosphere.

Four a.m. and not a spook in sight. The hotel was silent. There wasn't even a decent creak. Then it was light again and time for all good ghosts to be on their way. The ghost watch was a failure. So there it is a £50,000 reward for anyone who can get these ghosts to work to a timetable.