Big interest in rare Skibbereen farm
The rarity of a large holding will always get a few pulses racing.
It will be interesting, therefore, to see a 90-acre residential farm will fare in a strong agricultural area near Skibbereen, particularly as we’re coming towards the end of what was a very good year for agricultural land prices in Ireland, despite some bizarre and disruptive weather.
The farm — located in the townland of Adrigole — is owned by a UK-based Irishman and has been let for some years and run as an extension of a sizeable dairying operation, according to selling agent Anthony O’Regan of the Cork office of Keane Mahony Smith.
“He’s a man who has been living in the UK all of his working life and who bought this farm about twenty years ago… He farmed it himself for a few years from a distance but it wasn’t successful so he ended up leasing it for almost eighteen years… It’s now being run as part of a very successful dairying operation.”
The property has been very well maintained and plenty of work has been carried out over the years to keep the lands up to a high standard.
This is the same of the house. It’s a bungalow that hasn’t been lived in for the best part of two decades but one would never suspect, according to Anthony.
“It’s a very fine property,” says Anthony, “and, in fairness to the tenant, he has done it extremely well — it has always been re-seeded over the years, he has put in central roadways, laid on water troughs to all fields, for example, and there’s a decent farmyard there.”
The entire farm is ready as a dairying unit with the exception of a milking parlour. This is the only piece missing from the puzzle, as it were.
“For someone who might want to set up their eldest son in business on this farm, there’s a very fine bungalow that hasn’t been lived in for the last eighteen years, yet they have maintained it diligently from year to year — the heating is always on and it’s a beautiful three-bedroom bungalow.”
The bungalow is laid out on its own grounds with tarmacadam to the front and a garden to the rear. Accommodation includes a hallway, lounge, kitchen/dining room, three bedrooms and a bathroom. Features include recessed lighting throughout, PVC double-glazing and PVC facia and soffit.
Access to the farm is good. While there isn’t anything by way of road frontage, there is clear and uncomplicated access via a lane of no more than 100m or so in length.
There is a range of good quality outbuildings with the farm also. These are adjacent to the house and yard and are described as “top class facilities” by the selling agents. They include ample slatted accommodation, as well as a number of cubicle houses, loose cattle sheds, machinery shed, covered and outdoor silage pits, a secure slurry pit and a large concrete yard.
The townland of Adrigole is located about 8km from Skibbereen — to the east of the town — and about a one-hour drive from Cork City along the famous Wild Atlantic Way.
There’s certainly nothing too wild about this well-maintained farm and it is, of course, already gathering plenty of local interest.
The level of interest is such that the owner in this case has instructed his selling agents to handle the sale by means of written offers which must be submitted to the auctioneers by the 18th of November next.
The price expectation is at €1,500,000. Taken overall at over €16,000 per acre, it’s a strong figure but a number of sales in the area have been strong over the last year or so. In addition, if one takes into account the quality of the land, the quality of the house and outbuildings and the rarity of the entire package, it wouldn’t be long adding up to the sum of its parts.
