Vendor asks €9m for Lisselan farm
Back then, in the dark days of 2010 and 2011, the farm set a massive benchmark for quality pastureland and was a harbinger for things to come — a massive thirst for quality land driven by CAP changes and the onset of a free market economy in agriculture.
Lisselan highlighted the strength of the dairy sector in particular in an economy that was moribund at the time. The sale saw huge interest and made a record price for the country, as well as the county, at the time. It was purchased by a well-know dairying family from Bandon. This time round, who will buy the remainder of the Blackburn-family owned estate? Quatari buyers have been quite prominent of late, in prime bloodstock breeding areas of Tipperary and Limerick — perhaps the home of Imperial Call may be the calling card for single strong buyer? Because that’s what’s needed in this single-lot, 9million sale of 310 acres.
Vendors are again the Blackburn family — who are perhaps best known for having the master franchise for Mitsubishi in the British Isles and who have also concentrated on bloodstock in recent years. Following the sale of the home farm on the Lisselan estate, the family also disposed of a large stud farm they had operated in France — to good effect in a rising market, it’s said.
The landmark, Lisselan Estate will copperfasten the Blackburn’s withdrawal from west Cork, but they’re not leaving at any price — it may take some time to reach the 9 million expected — even with rich Gulf State-buyers being touted. This time round the amount of land on offer is 315 acres but of that, there’s only 160 of agricultural use, the remainder is in a nine-hole golf course and the sumptuous gardens that frame the house on a prominent bluff over the Argideen river.
The main house, albeit with 10,000 square feet of space, is a warm, liveable property, not at all austere or imposing and built along French chateau lines by the great-grandfather of the late historian, Mark Bence-Jones, (who had a prominent role in the recent, and excellent, RTE documentary, Raj in the Rain Built between 1851 and 1853 by William Bence Jones to a design by Lewis Vulliamy, the house is framed by approximately 30 acres of Robinsonian gardens which were also planted in the 1850 and which run down to the river from a promontory upon which the house is set.
The golf club, a Blackburn creation with a strong local membership, adjoins the parkland of the estate and is one of a number of blocks of land which form the entirety of the estate. The farmland, which includes 80 acres approximately of quality tillage land, is leased at the moment and the remaining 100 acre-plus of pasture land is leased out at the moment but it’s understood that contracts include break clauses. This would allow a clean purchase of the lands as part of the overall disposal.
The matter of the golf club is moot, as details of membership are not known, but its a quality 9-hole course, according to agents, David Ashmore of Sherry FitzGerald and Knight Frank, London. Interesting — and considering the Mitsubishi connection, the old homestead of the Ford family is also located in the Lisselan estate. The father of the future of affordable motoring, left his tenant farm in Lisselan during the Famine to emigrate to America — his son, Henry Ford, went on to found the iconic Ford Motor Corporation, and later went on to become a fervent supporters of Adolph Hitler in the run up to WW11.
Ford donated his entire European sales profits to National Socialism in the thirties. According to David Ashmore, the Lisselan Estate also holds some of the best private stretches of the River Argideen for salmon and sea trout fishing with 1170m of double bank fishing, ten named pools and 455m of single bank fishing.
The golf course is on 80 acres, with a wooded backdrop and the Argideen River runs through most of the park. The estate was purchased in 1990 by David Blackburn, who made considerable investment in the property, not least in the dairy farm and golf course, as well as the upgrade of the house and gardens. The Blackburn family’s wealth derives from the Mitsubishi motors franchise in Britain.
In 2008, David Blackburn sold his stake in the franchise back to the Mitsubishi Corporation. He now spends his time between the Turks and Caicos Islands, Ireland, Germany and Britain. David Blackburn also held the Mitsubishi franchise in southern Ireland; the group’s former showroom on Lapp’s Quay is now the City Quarter scheme, built by Howard Holdings during the boom.
