East Cork farm in hunt for €10,000 per acre

Located in the heart of one of the finest parts of the country for producing both national hunt and point-to-point winning racehorses, a large holding in East Cork is currently listed with Fermoy-based auctioneers Dick Barry & Son, and is sure to attract a good deal of interest from a wide range of farming interests.

The property is a roadside non-residential farm of 80 acres in the townland of Currabeha, about 11km from Fermoy on the N72 main road that runs east-west between Killarney and Dungarvan.

To the east of the property, lies the town of Tallow (also 11km away) in Co Waterford.

“It’s a nice piece of ground,” says selling agent Michael Barry.

“It’s all in one block, and it’s all in grass, about midway between Tallow and Fermoy.

It’s fronting onto the main road, and there’s also access via a laneway down the side of the farm.

“It’s not a public roadway to the side of it, but it will allow machinery to get in that way as well.”

Being located in an area with such strong equestrian credentials (equine superstar Denman is one of the more famous equestrian local heroes from these parts), it’s not surprising to find that here too, there is a direct connection with horses.

The well-known Currabeha hill gallop is situated on the farm.

This gallop has been popular with racehorse trainers for many years.

The farm has now been given over to grazing.

“It was a very popular and successful gallop in the area,” Michael confirms.

“It was used a lot for people training racehorses, particularly point-to-point horses.

If someone with equestrian interests were interested in this farm, it wouldn’t be hard to open it up again to use it for that.

But it’s very likely that someone with a dairying interest will be the one to take over the property, as it is the dominant agricultural enterprise locally.

“It’s all in grass, so it would be suitable for that purpose,” says Michael. “There’s a slight fall in the land from the top down to a river at the end. It’s a gradual fall from the boundary at the public road, and it’s all workable land.”

The lands are, according to the agents, well laid out, of sound quality and well fenced.

The asking price is €10,000 per acre. It’s a reasonable figure. If, one would imagine, the puzzling question of the Brexit situation was resolved in some manner by this stage, the asking price might be a bit more bullish, considering where it’s located, its quality and the size of the parcel.

“It’s a realistic price guide,” says Michael, “judging by its quality and the way that the market is at the moment.”

The property is very new to the market, so it’s difficult to predict how the sale might fare over the coming weeks and months. It is in a busy area where some high prices have been achieved in the past, and where a number of strong sectors of the agricultural industry converge.

The price guide is a realistic one and if the right market conditions come to bear, it might even prove to be a conservative one.