Castlebellingham was the ancestral home of the eponymous Bellingham baronets until the late 1950s. The last Bellingham to live there was Brigadier General Sir Edward Bellingham, born in 1879, who was the last Lord Lieutenant of Louth in 1921, and Guardian of the Rolls (Custos Rotulorum). He was then elected to the Irish free State Senate in 1925-36. It was purchased by Dermot Meehan in 1958 from the Irish Land Commission for £3,065.00. Meehan spent several years converting the house into the Bellingham Castle Hotel, which remains today. Meehan sold the hotel and 17 acres in 1967 for £30,636.61. The hotel, including the 17 acres, was offered for sale at €1,500,000 in 2011.