Two former tree plantations totalling 170 acres up for auction
Lot 1 is a 64-acre farm at Oldtown Donore, near Naas.
Coming up for public auction on Thursday, February 22, at Lawlor’s Hotel in Naas, County Kildare, are a brace of farms in Kildare and Laois totalling 170 acres.
While it is unusual for two large Leinster holdings such as these to go under the hammer on the same day, what is even more unusual is that both of them consist of land that was formerly forestry.
With the plantations now completely cleared, these substantial properties can be used for any agricultural usage, representing blank canvases in two sought-after locations.
Lot 1 is the 64-acre farm at Oldtown Donore, near Naas. It has a price guide of €450,000 (€7,000/acre). Lot 2 consists of a 106-acre farm at Inchacoooley, near Monasterevin, County Laois and has a price guide of €530,000 (€5,000/acre).
According to selling agent Clive Kavanagh of Naas-based Jordan auctioneers, the lands in Lot 1 are in excellent condition.
Located 5km from the village of Caragh, the holding is within a short distance of a number of important towns in the area, such as Naas (10km), Newbridge (10km), Sallins (13km) and Prosperous (7km).
Both the M7 and M9 motorways are within 20 minutes of the property. With frontage onto a local road, the now-cleared lands was put to use producing Christmas trees.
As no Government grants were obtained and the plantation was not considered a commercial forestry, the lands don’t have any re-planting conditions.
Lot 2 is 5km from the town of Monasterevin and 6.5km from Portarlington, while Junction 14 of the M7 (site of the extensive Mayfield motorway services) is only 15 minutes away, according to the agents.
The lands are all in one block and have been cleared in the same manner as Lot 1, with no replanting conditions attached. The River Figile runs along the holding’s eastern boundary.
Such blank canvases are going to attract a wide variety of suitors, particularly as the possibility to acquire so many acres in Leinster at these price levels does not come along every day of the week.
