Stately home on 155 hectares

Many of us would not be averse to picking up an old stately pile, like this one at Grene Park, Dundrum, should we have won last week’s Lotto. Good land in a good location is always a sound investment — even if fine houses in the country lost some of their allure some time around 2008.

Pitched at around €2.9m, according to Alison deVere Hunt, of Cashel Livestock and Property Sales, the 155.6-hectare farm includes a 19th century residence built in the Williamite style, and is available in three lots.

Comprising 265 acres of pasture, 105 acres of forestry, and an outlying 14-acre holding, the land is in one block with superb road frontage, and two access roadways.

The forestry, which is hardwood planting, will draw over €20,000 a year for the next seven years, and Grene Park farm has a €11,856 per annum single farm payment.

The residence is centred within the farmland and was built in the mid-1800s for Nicholas B Grene — hence its name. A simple, but symettrical, five-bay, two-storey over-basement property, it’s been in Grene family hands until now and is in very good condition, although it will need to be modernised.

As will the farmland, which hadn’t been farmed intensively for years, until it was leased six or seven years ago, says deVere Hunt, and the property will be offered in the entire or two lots; the house and 279 acres, and the forestry of 105 acres.

Accommodation includes an old-style basement, with main entrance overhead and two large reception rooms on either side, with smaller rooms to the rear. The second floor has seven bedrooms and a main bathroom with separate WC.

Entrance is via a sweeping avenue less than a mile from the village of Knockavilla, and there’s a separate farm avenue leading to the farm buildings, which include a fine square courtyard of cut-stone stables and outhouses. The courtyard includes a walled garden and orchard and, at one stage, the house was fully self-sufficient.

Located close to Cashel, Grene Park offers top-class land suitable for beef, dairying or horses, as the location is favoured by the bloodstock industry.