122-acre quality Cork farm with period house for auction

Mountkeeffe House offers over 3,700ft2 of accommodation laid out over three floors.

With an auction date of Monday, October 9, at 3pm in the Charleville Park Hotel, a landmark 122-acre farm in North Cork is for sale with auctioneer Timothy O’Connell of Castlecor, Mallow. 

The property — Mountkeeffe House — is 3kms north of Newmarket in an active dairy-oriented area.

The rear of Mountkeeffe House which is an imposing period residence that was built in the middle of the 18th century.

“It’s top-quality land for the area,” says Timothy, “and it’s in an ideal location, adjacent to the town of Newmarket. It’s on the main road from Newmarket to Charleville… it’s a well sought-after area.”

There is a substantial amount of road frontage with the farm and it lends itself to sub-division. On the day, the property will be offered in a series of lots:

• Lot 1 consists of the entire holding; 
• Lot 2 is Mountkeeffe House and farmyard on approximately 10 acres; 
• Lot 3 is circa 61 acres of top-quality farmland; 
• Lot 4 is 39 acres of top-quality farmland; 
• Lot 5 consists of 12 acres of land with natural water supply.

The house is an imposing period residence that was built in the middle of the 18th century, in a private, picturesque setting. It offers over 3,700ft2 of accommodation laid out over three floors. It includes a kitchen, dining room, sitting room, bathroom and six bedrooms.

“There will be substantial interest in it because of the locality and Newmarket would be a big dairying location. There are a lot of dairy farmers in the area,” says Timothy, “and it’s an executor sale.”

Mountkeeffe House and its yard.

So far, he says, there is a good level of interest in all the lots. It is difficult to predict how such sales will go. Normally, there is strong demand for large holdings of quality land but the house itself is a rare jewel for which there should also be strong demand.

The price expectation for land in this area is in the region of €12,000/acre. Given its rarity, this property should comfortably achieve that. As for the house itself, it’s a habitable project in need of investment and its value will be far more difficult to predict.