Going, going, gone — for millions

MULTI-million euro property sales are completing this month on several Cork and Kilkenny properties.

Gone is Castlemahon House, in Cork’s Blackrock, for about €2m.

Going, in Co Kilkenny, is Duninga House, a failed tourism project now in receivership with KPMG, which has 48 acres of land, a period, 10,000 sq ft house and 14 completed, tax-incentive holiday homes: Duninga hit the market in a blaze of publicity when launched in late August, for just €1m.

Listed jointly with Savills and Dominic Daly, it excited huge interest and is set to sell for €2m, once some sale issues are resolved. Duninga got spirited bidding from a number of parties, including those with equine interests.

Going, too, and advanced well in the sale process, is Cregane Manor, a Victorian seaside estate on 30 acres, near Rosscarbery.

It got strong local and international interest, with 50 viewings since hitting the country house market in July, and, again, witnessed competitive bidding.

Listed at a seemingly bargain level of €1.5m, with agents Sherry FitzGerald, in Cork city and Clonakilty, as well as with international agents, Christie’s, it is ‘sale agreed’ in recent weeks, believed to be to a buyer with US interests and Irish roots.

Likely selling price is thought to be around € 1.8m, with the final stages in the legal sale process continuing into this month.

Meanwhile, the final sale hurdle was due to be completed this week on the former nursing home Castlemahon House, near Blackrock Castle, on Castle Road, in Cork.

Back in 2006, with the hope of some development potential on an acre of its grounds, it went up for sale seeking €5m.

This was revised down to €2.2m last year, with a change of agent. Now, a third agent, James Murphy, in Kinsale, has it sold, again for an undisclosed sum, likely to be in or around €2m.

Formerly a nursing home, for two decades, and home to 24 residents, it dates to the 1700s and is a protected structure.

Originally called Tarkfield, it was, at one time, owned by the golfer, Jimmy Bruen, winner of a British Open in the 1940s, a Pádraig Harrington of his day.

Buyers of Castlemahon are the Redemptorist Order, who will relocate their Scala Youth Ministry service there from Bessboro, dealing with 3,500 teenagers a year in a Meitheal transition-year programme, among other youth services.

They have recently secured planning permission for changes to the structure, including extension, and are to fundraise shortly for a conference centre-type building on the 1.75 acre property.

Spokesperson Fr Noel Kehoe confirmed the purchase and said “we’re reversing a trend, where religious order buildings were turned into nursing homes. We’re buying a nursing home, and putting it into use in lay and religious ministry.”