Vendor asks €9m for Lisselan farm
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, (following the death of David Blackburn senior), 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.
