€2.5m asking price for rare Graigue House in North Cork
It has a history stretching back to the 12th century and within its modest-sized boundaries, there were no fewer than four defensive tower houses and three churches on its elevated position.
It was at the crossroads of so much, for so long, that it became of great strategic importance.
The River Awbeg runs alongside it, and it was on the famous Bianconi Route, the Ryanair-style public transport system of the early 19th century, revolutionary for its time.
You can still find vestiges of its cobble roadway in Shanballymore.
Even today, the main Mitchelstown-Mallow road dissects the village and the N73 (Mallow-Dublin road) runs just a short distance away to the west.
Only a short distance from Shanballymore lies one of the largest holdings that has come up for sale in Ireland this year.
On 298 acres, Graigue House is an impressive farm with an imposing period residence at its heart.
The enormous acreage is physically split into two, a short distance from one another.
“In the ‘home farm’, there are 193 acres, of which about 150 would be under tillage,” explains selling agent Michael O’Donovan of Mallow-based Sherry Fitzgerald O’Donovan.
“It’s all good-quality dual-purpose land. The remainder of the lands would be more suitable for grazing.”
There’s quite a rarity factor in the sheer size of this farm, but something that makes it rarer still is the existence of the good-quality period home.
“There’s a fine two-story residence on it. In fact, it’s three-story, effectively, because the attic is converted as well, so it’s three-storey over a basement.”
Although the house has been vacated for a while, and the agent admits that this is “showing”, it is, he says, a residence in good condition: “It has central heating, new windows… With little enough expenditure, it could be made into a fine house.”
The house is accessed via a very impressive entrance along a tarmacadam driveway that leads directly from the main road, flanked by mature specimen trees.
A large entrance hall leads to two large reception rooms, each containing their original features. There’s also a kitchen and a shower room on the ground floor. On the two upstairs levels, there are six “well proportioned” bedrooms and a bathroom.
“It’s really in a nice setting with a lot of nice trees all around it. Then there are two main farm yards, one with sheds and the other with seven or eight stables, some storehouses and a garage.”
About 1km away is the second block of this farm. These lands are located in the townland of Ballintlea.
“There are 105 acres in that,” says Michael, “of which 60 acres are in tillage, 25 in grass, and 25 acres that would be suitable for forestry.
“Altogether, it’s a fine block of land. It’s very hard to get anything like it. It would be very suitable for a dairy farm, a tillage farm, or someone who wanted to keep horses.”
Its diverse uses as things stand underline this, and Michael is finding that interest is coming from a wide spread of farming interests and geographical location.
“We’ve had a nice bit of interest in it. We’ve had interested parties from up in Wicklow, from people in Northern Ireland, up the midlands… really, from all over the country.”
The asking price of this rare piece of property is €2,500,000. There aren’t any entitlements going with the farm, which enjoys superb road frontage and which can be sold in separate lots.
Given the inclusion of the house and outbuildings and the general high level of quality of the land, the price tag seems very competitive.
