Fabulous €16m dairy farm
Waterford Castle is now an hotel and golf complex, while Castle Annaghs has been transformed into a €16 million dairy farm with an historic residence at its centre.
The 550-acre holding is now on the market (due to retirement), and it is the largest dairy farm to come for sale this year. It’s being sold lock, stock and barrel, including a 165-head Friesian herd with an average annual yield of 1,150 gallons per animal.
The land is bounded on two sides by the River Barrow. The property is located only a couple of miles from New Ross, Co Wexford, but is within the boundaries of Co Kilkenny. It will have farmers from all over Ireland lusting — but only those with deep pockets need apply. The property is for sale by tender through Anne and Philip Carton of PN O’Gorman and Co, who also sold the property last time round.
On this farm’s smooth, rich and level soil, it is said that Strongbow married Aoife McMorrough, prompting the poet’s line: “Thus it befell that old Ireland was lost and won in the shade of the old Annaghs tree.”
The land passed through a number of hands after Strongbow’s marital and forceful acquisition of Leinster, and the Butlers took possession and built a castle at Annaghs in the 17th century.
The current house, Castle Annaghs, was built by Edward Murphy, a Catholic wine merchant-smuggler in 1797, a year before the rebellion.
His uncle, Father John Murphy, who was a leader in the 1798 rebellion, lodged at Annaghs before the battle of Ross.
The house has remained unchanged since that time. It’s a 10,000 square foot, Georgian property with two storeys over basement, and 10 bedrooms.
The old servants’ quarters remain intact, with kitchen range, meat hooks and wine cellars as they were originally, and, overhead, the house has retained its Adam’s fireplaces, exceptional stucco work and its centrepiece — a magnificent, oval, cantilevered staircase.
The 550 acres includes some drained marshland and, according to Philip Carton, some 450 acres of grassland, most of which has been reseeded fairly recently.
Some 90 acres is under maize and barley, and the land is watered by two bored wells.
The farm comes with 165,187 gallons of milk quota, and the yard includes a 20-unit milking parlour and cubicle housing for 250 animals, as well as a slatted shed for 150 head.
An older Masstock unit has accommodation for 200 weanlings, and there are six calving boxes and a 35-cow maternity unit.
The silage capacity is also very good — there’s storage for 247 acres of grass, along with whole crop cereal silage from 90 acres. Slurry capacity meets current regulations.
There’s also a modern machinery shed, built in 2004, and a workshop with staff canteen, as well as a chemical store and a number of other outhouses and ancillary buildings.
The estate also comes with a stable yard, including a four-bedroom groom’s cottage, a three-bedroom gate lodge, and a steward’s residence.
The entire property is for sale, and it should cause a considerable flutter in the early summer property market. The tender deadline is at 5pm on Friday, June 27.
