Golf course once priced at €12m set to fetch €2m

Yet another golf course has come on the market and is expected to fetch only a fraction of what was paid for it during the property boom.

A total of 236 acres of land, including an 18-hole golf course and agricultural land, is for sale in Beaufort, Co Kerry, with a €2m guide price.

The property was sold to Galvin Developments, Killarney, now in receivership, by the Magill family for a reported €12m, in 2006. The golf course accounts for about 53 acres and there are 83 acres of agricultural land for sale.

Property consultants Tom Spillane, Killarney, and Savills, Cork, are handling the private treaty sale on the instructions of statutory receiver Gearóid Costelloe, of Grant Thornton.

“Historically, any land for sale in this area, which has some of the best land in Kerry, makes a good price. It’s all level land with good road frontage,” said Mr Spillane. The likelihood was that the property would be sold in two lots, with the golf course and the farming land being disposed of separately, he added.

The golf course, opened in 1995, was originally designed by Dr Arthur Spring.

A recent upgrade was carried out by golf architect Tom Mackenzie.

Golf club members have been managing the course with the bank’s permission and the sale casts a doubt over the future of the club.

Churchtown House, a residential property adjacent to the lands, is not included in the sale, but partly constructed hotel buildings are.