Ireland’s largest and leading studio, which housed Oscar winner Braveheart, is now up for sale.

Penny Dreadful

Ardmore Studios, Ireland’s best-known film and TV studio, is being placed on the market, the facility’s board of directors announced today.

The Studios has housed Irish and international features including Braveheart, My Left Foot and Excalibur. In more recent years, it has housed TV shows such as Penny Dreadful,The Tudors, and Moone Boy.

Productions currently on site include Mel Gibson feauture The Professor and the Madman and TV drama Into the Badlands.

In 2016, Ardmore Studios expanded its studio footprint and opened The Film Factory, a 47,000 sq. ft. studios in Bray.

Ossie Kilkenny and Paul McGuinness, both former U2 managers, are the majority shareholders in Ardmore and have owned the Studios for almost 30 years. IBI Corporate Finance is acting on behalf of Ardmore in the sale process.

Established in 1958 and located on 18 acres in Bray, County Wicklow, Ardmore is the largest and only studio in Ireland to offer multiple international standard sound stages and production and post-production support services on site.

According to the owners, the facility has benefited from an investment programme of more than €2m in recent years to upgrade its on-site facilities and it has recorded year-on-year growth in profitability whilst operating at an average annual capacity of 85-90% since 2013.

The studio’s recent success follows a period when debt accumulated after Ireland’s 2008 economic downturn threatened to derail the business.

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