Former horse racing track for sale in Tramore

AN 183-acre farm with an interesting history has recently come onto the market with Waterford-based agents Sherry Fitzgerald John Rohan.

Holidaymakers who have frequented the area will surely have unwittingly spotted this property on their travels as it’s situated just off the coastal road between Tramore and Dunmore East.

It’s closer to Tramore (about 3km) than Dunmore East (11km) adjacent to the area known as “Back Strand” and is accessed via two access points.

The selling agents describe it as a compact holding in one lot, comprising a former horse racing track of about 165 acres. This, according to John Rohan, is “good quality arable land – ideal for grazing.” The remaining 18 acres are comprised of ditches and reservoirs.

The property has a chequered history, having been originally reclaimed back in the 19th century. It was granted planning permission in 2006 for a “world class racecourse” and was designed as mile-and-two-furlong oval circuit suitable for flat and national hunt racing.

Today, the property has a clever system of pumps that both drains and waters the track as required. Two sluice gates on site work in tandem with the tides and the pumps to create a situation where this substantial fertile holding has plenty of water but never too much of it.

The asking price of €1,100,000 comes out at a reasonable €6,000/acre but a more realist way of looking at it might be to think of it as a 165-acre holding with an asking price of €6,700/acre.