Marc Mac Closkey departs Taunton's the Castle hotel as MD

Marc Mac Closkey has stepped down as managing director of the 44-bedroom Castle hotel in Taunton, Somerset, three years after being appointed to the post.

Mac Closkey joined the business as general manager in 2012 from Lisloughrey Lodge in Cong, County Mayo, and was promoted to managing director four years later. He resigned from the board of directors on 19 July.

Nick Chapman, who took over as chairman of the Castle from his father Kit in 2014, said that Mac Closky had decided to seek a new position and wished him well in the future.

"The future operation of the hotel will be headed by Liam Finnegan, the executive head chef who has been appointed director of food and beverage, and a new front of house manager, who will take up their post on 19 August," said Chapman, who spends around two days a week at the hotel.

Based in Bath, Chapman explained that alongside his role at the Castle, he also works in digital marketing and is chairman of his brother Dominic's pub, the Beehive in White Waltham, Berkshire.

The Castle hotel has been owned by the Chapman family since 1950 when Nick's grandparents Peter and Etty bought the property. Kit joined the business in 1976, initially as marketing director, before becoming managing director and then chairman.

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