Picture a typical day at a Medieval English castle.
It will probably involve a tea room. Some slightly bored schoolchildren wandering around the grounds. Perhaps a historical re-enactment.
That sedate image couldn’t be further from the £25million plans hatched by Real Housewives of Toronto star, Ann Kaplan Mullholland, who bought Lympne Castle near Hythe in Kent back in 2023 for £5.5million.
The castle, which sits on a vast 130-acre site with views of the English Channel, is already in use as a wedding venue, bar and restaurant, with plans for a hotel and event space.
But it is no ordinary venue, because Ann Kaplan Mullholland and her husband, Dr Stephen Mullholland, are no ordinary billionaires.
Glamorous: Businesswoman and reality star Ann Kaplan Mulholland and her husband, Dr Stephen Mulholland are the new owners of Lympne Castle in Kent
Canadian Ann made her fortune founding a financial technology company which generates credit scores, and Stephen is a renowned cosmetic surgeon.
But to look at the couple, you could be forgiven for thinking they are rock stars, actors or eccentric artists.
They are known for hosting lavish themed parties in their properties around the world, and on behalf of their celebrity pals, who include Richard Branson.
I visited the Grade I listed castle, parts of which date back to 1080, to take a tour with Ann and hear about her plans to kit out the castle in her very unique style.
The castle was built in the 1080s for the Archdeacons of Canterbury, and remained in the same ownership until 1860.
It was then used as a farmhouse and was in disrepair by the early 1900s. It was briefly occupied by brewer, F.J Tennant, and then Henry Beecham, brother of English conductor, Thomas Beecham.
It was used by the Army in World War Two, thanks to its clear vantage point over the English Channel. Sir Paul McCartney used the castle to record the 1979 Wings album, Back to the Egg, in the Great Hall where weddings are now performed.
It measures 27,000 sq ft and comes with fortified towers, 20 bedrooms, a wood-panelled Great Hall, a restaurant and kitchens, four cottages, walled gardens, a vineyard, orchard, stables and 139 acres of wood and pasture land.
Sprawling: Lympne Castle was first built in the 1080s but has been added to over the years
Bold: One of the bedrooms, where Ann is blending her unique taste with historic surroundings
Room with a view: Lympne Castle has extensive grounds and a view over the English Channel
Clad in a red faux fur jacket, jeans and black Schiaparelli boots with unnerving realistic gold toes on the outside, Kaplan Mullholland tells me she only started renovating the hotel four weeks before I arrived.
The work done in that time is almost unbelievable – though it helps that she has a crew of 40 people working around the clock.
Among other locations, the Kaplan Mulhollands have homes in Toronto, Las Vegas and Hawaii, where they live close to Barack Obama. So what on earth brought them to rural Kent?
Ann initially bought the castle thinking that it would be her UK home – a bolt hole to use now that all of her eight grown-up children had flown the nest – rather than a business.
In fact, when she found it, she had been looking for a pad in Mayfair – but with her business-head on, she baulked at the prices. Was a small-ish flat with no outside space, on the market for tens of millions, really a good investment?
So she saw the castle, and bought it for the knock-down price of £5.5million. It had been marketed at £11million, but she discovered a raft of structural problems and played hard ball.
Is this something she’s always wanted to do?
History: Stephen and Ann in the King’s Room, where Henry VII once stayed
Event space: The castle will be used to host weddings and other events, as well as a hotel
Fortifications: Lympne has two large towers and was used as a WWII lookout
‘No,’ she admits. ‘It just seemed kind of cool. Buy a castle.’
But the castle is eye-wateringly expensive to run – which is where the idea of the wedding business was born.
‘We may have money, but we don’t throw away every dime,’ she explains. ‘It comes from being in business for so long, and running finances.
‘If we do 80 weddings per year, that will cover the cost of running the castle.’
I’ve always been strange, and I’ve always loved to throw parties. So why not throw a perpetual party?
‘I’ve always been strange, and I’ve always loved to throw parties. So why not throw a perpetual party?
‘Parties of 300 or 400 people, that’s my normal. Drag queens, magicians. I love to do a theme.’
She admits that the hotel may never be truly ‘done’. But she hopes to have the event space completed by next April, and the hotel open for bookings next year. Weddings are already taking place.
It has become a huge project, and Kaplan Mulholland wants her fingerprint to be on every single part of it. Her husband, though, is hands-off when it comes to the renovation. ‘He’s not interested,’ she says.
The decor is true to the castle’s history, but injected with Ann’s signature bold style.
Change of plan: The couple initially wanted Lympne to be just a home, but it is now a business
Rural: Ann eschewed a Mayfair pad for the base on the Kent Coast as it was better value
She has obsessed over every tiny detail. ‘It’s about being very OCD and socially dysfunctional,’ she says.
I don’t know if a socially dysfunctional person would be able to host such notorious parties, but she is certainly on top of the details.
One of the wedding chapels includes a Sistine chapel-style hand-painted mural including images of her sister and mother, who have passed away.
It will also have a restaurant, which is themed around dogs. When she says it is dog-themed, she is not kidding.
The star menu item is the ‘K-9’ hot dog, which costs £9. Some meals come in novelty dog bowls or with a ceramic bone. The coat hooks on the walls are shaped as little dog bottoms and tails. It is, of course, dog-friendly.
I have an obsession with keeping true to the old castle, but I want to do it with a humorous twist. Eccentricity. Weirdness!
I assume Kaplan Mulholland has an army of dogs – but she tells me she has just one, and it lives with her son for most of the year.
The whole restaurant is a masterclass in high camp, perhaps best exemplified by the Caesar salad being served with a mini statue of the Roman emperor. Or is it the Scotch eggs, served in a ceramic chicken playing the bagpipes?
Kaplan Mullholland runs me through this and all the other wacky serving knick knacks, getting me to guess the references and puns.
When you are this fabulously wealthy, I imagine it is easy to take yourself too seriously – but it’s clear from how much these things tickle her that she does not.
In fact, she’s incredibly likeable, stopping to chat with locals who have come in for a cup of coffee.
Later in the tour, she stops to shout at some geese. ‘Eat!’
Apparently, the particular species of weed in the ponds in the grounds is supposed to be irresistible to them – so she is perplexed as to why they are not tucking in.
Furniture from auction houses… and Temu
Kaplan Mulholland can afford to do almost anything she wants – but when it comes to her business she is far from a spendthrift.
She has scoured local and online auctions herself for much of the furniture – which with so much space to fill is no mean feat.
It’s clear she loves British history and culture, and admits hunting for vintage gems has become an obsession. ‘They don’t have auction houses like these in Canada and the US,’ she says. ‘I also go to a lot of antique stores.’
‘I have an obsession with keeping true to the old castle, but I want to do it with a humorous twist. Eccentricity. Weirdness!
Hosts: The couple love to throw parties at their properties around the world
Scenic: Lympne Castle has extensive grounds and gardens, which will be used for weddings
Sensitive: Ann wants to keep the decor at Lympne ‘true to the old castle’ – but with a twist
Power couple: Ann’s business background has helped keep the renovation on track
I’m surprised to be told that, alongside the stunning antiques that fill every room of the vast property, are bits and bobs sourced from Amazon and Temu. ‘I care about every dime spent,’ she says.
Some of her acquisitions have been more opportunistic, though.
Over coffee in the castle’s bar – me a cappuccino, her a rice green tea – she tells me that the chairs and tables we are sitting on were hand-me-downs from a famous London hotel.
Shortly after she first viewed the castle, Kaplan Mullholland was staying at the Dorchester on Park Lane – but her room was noisy. When she asked why, the manager told her the hotel was being renovated.
I bought the tables before I bought the castle
She asked if they were keeping the tables she was sitting at – and when they said they were headed to an auction, she bought the lot.
‘I bought the tables before I bought the castle,’ she said.
Kaplan Mulholland has financial nous, and great taste – which makes her an excellent person to take on this ambitious renovation.
But what would her tips be for someone doing a project of a less grand scale?
‘Shop in the auction houses. Old is the new new – repurpose furniture, change the knobs on your cupboards and doors.
‘Find a good furniture refinisher. And get rid of junk.’
She also thinks people should use their home to express their personality, something of which she and her husband have plenty.
I’m sure she has seen countless soulless, minimalist penthouses in her time – but that just isn’t her.
‘You only have one life to live. Normal, to me, isn’t fun,’ she says. ‘It’s just things. It doesn’t cost more to do things in your own style.’
