69-acre West Cork farm will tempt those in the dairy sector

Aerial view of the 69-acre residential farm at Kilronan West, Dunmanway default

Located 5km south of the West Cork town of Dunmanway, a 69-acre residential farm is attracting strong interest, according to selling agent Daniel Lehane of Dunmanway.

The property is in Kilronan West; a strong dairying locale and most of the interest is from that very sector. It is rare that a substantial piece of land comes on the market in this particular corner of Munster; thus the keen interest.

“What we have are 69 acres mostly in grass and with very little waste,” says Daniel. “There are only about two acres at the southern end of the farm in rough grazing that could be reclaimed.”

The property is presented in two lots, which are separated by the public road.

“We have 52 acres in the larger of the two lots,” says Daniel. “This is where the traditional-style farmhouse is located. It’s structurally good but it would have been unoccupied for many years so it’s in need of refurbishment. It’s situated in the centre of the 52-acre portion and it’s surrounded by outbuildings – two slatted sheds, a hay shed and various old traditional stone outbuildings.”

The land on this lot is south-facing and of good quality and is all in pasture. The house and outbuildings represent some very tempting prospects as a rental property close to Dunmanway, with the collection of stone outbuildings offering potential.

The public road that separates this lot from the smaller 17-acre parcel is a very quiet cul-de-sac road.

“These are 17 acres of top-quality agricultural land,” says Daniel. “It’s all in one field and it’s quite level and all in newly-reseeded pasture. Of course, it has very good access with the road frontage and there are no buildings on that side of the farm.

“It’s situated in the heart of dairy country,” emphasises Daniel, “and there’s a lot of local interest already. There’s some outside interest too… the size of the farm would serve it well as an outside farm for, say, a dairy farmer. There’s even interest from people thinking of setting up a dairy unit there. It’s just missing the milking parlour and off you go. It’s well fenced all around.”

The agent says that he expects offers to start arriving over the coming days, “judging by the interest in it… It’s one of the more substantial blocks of land for sale in the area in recent times and given the issues that dairy farmers have at the moment with stocking issues in terms of the number of animals they can hold per acre, this one ticks a lot of boxes.”

The price guide is between €650,000 and €700,000 (€9,400 to €10,100/acre) and the interest so far has been for the entire holding.