100 acres with house
An 18th century, double bow fronted house, the property was the seat of a branch of the FitzGerald family, descendants of Richard FitzGerald, the Knight of Kerry.
The family arrived in the Youghal area in 1177, but the Norman/Old English line lost their castle at Castlemartyr and estates in the south-east during the Desmond rebellion. The lands and castle were granted to Walter Raleigh, who lived at Youghal, and were later sold on to Richard Boyle, whose family held lands in the area up to the early 20th century.
Six years ago, Castlemartyr Castle, which had been used as a boarding school by the Carmelite Order, was sold for €4 million and now it’s the turn of Muckridge House, which hits the market this week at €5 million through Mark Smyth of Ganly Walters.
The house has been uninhabited for some time, but has been maintained in good condition, he says, as have the gardens.
It’s approached by an 850m long driveway from the road and there is separate access to the courtyard to the rear.
This has a wide range of outbuildings, including stables, machinery sheds, garages and hay barns, and some are suitable for conversion, says the agent.
The land is all in one block, it’s suitable for tillage or grazing and is zoned industrial under the current Cork county development plan.
The property has 0.32 kilometres of frontage onto the Youghal road, while the N25 bypass route runs to the back of the house.
Giving a rough value of €1.5 million to the house and yard, the land value works out at around €35,000 per acre, including development land, which may make it a little soft for today’s market.
The property is being disposed of by public tender for the Dora Haccious Trust, with final offers by June 8.
Muckridge House has 8,600 square feet of space and is two storey over basement with a total of six bedrooms, three bathrooms, three reception room, a study, kitchen and storeroom.
