No room at the inn for backpackers as An Óige sells off prime Kerry site

Seeking offers of €2.5m for Aghadoe House and grounds (24.3 ha/60 acres) in Fossa, near Killarney.

Thu, 08 Feb, 2024 - 10:14

Catherine Shanahan

An Óige, the Irish youth hostel association, is selling off a prime Kerry site in a bid to boost finances after a few tough years during the pandemic.

The association is seeking offers of €2.5m for Aghadoe House and grounds (24.3 ha/60 acres) in Fossa, near Killarney, in their possession since 1957.

The house hasn’t been a functioning hostel since covid.

The sale will reduce to just four the number of hostels An Óige has in Ireland, from more than 30 in its heyday.

Financial statements for An Óige for the year ending September 30, 2022, show an after-tax deficit of €486,389.

Cash reserves in the bank amounted to €1,108,641. The directors said sale of the Killarney hostel “will ensure adequate reserves are available for financial support, along with reinvestment in alternative revenue streams”.

The property is being offered for sale in one or more lots, including:

Lot 1: The entire lot, comprising of Aghadoe House, the Lodge, and Gate Lodge, together with the benefit of rental income, on a total site area of 24.3ha;
Lot 2: Investment property comprising of the Coach House, held under an Agreement for Lease to a third party on a site area of c4.78ha (11.83 acres);
Lot 3: Aghadoe House, the Lodge, Gate Lodge, and lands on a 19.5ha (48.2 acres) site.

The agents, Dublin-based Avison Young, say it’s a “magnificent, once-in-a-lifetime refurbishment and redevelopment opportunity” on a site by “the renowned Ring of Kerry, overlooking the lakes”.

Avison Young would not be drawn on the identity of the third party leasing the Coach House. In 2020, Killarney Distillery Ltd was cleared by planners for conservation/refurbishment of the Coach House “for re-use as part of a craft distillery”.

However, they told the Irish Examiner that the lease was “nothing to do with them”.

The property for sale is at the heart of Kerry’s tourist trail, near the luxurious Aghadoe Heights Hotel. The boundaries are planted with attractive woodland — Aghadoe means “enclosure of the yew”.

Planning notes lodged with Kerry County Council show that Aghadoe House is associated with the Headley family, originally called the Wynn family of Wales. London-based George Wynn was created a baronet in 1770, and acquired the landholding at Aghadoe through his marriage to Jane Blennerhassett of Ballyseedy, near Tralee.

Records state that it was built in 1828 at a cost of IR£12,000. In the 1880s, the Headleys relinquished the estate to a land agent, Sam Hussey, known as “woodcock Hussey” for his ability to escape being shot.

A Killarney man described him in a newspaper as “a regular anti-Christ and Orangeman at heart ... a despot by instinct”.

The house was later briefly occupied by a Major John MacGillycuddy and then the IRA.

It was partially burnt in 1922 by Republicans during the Civil War, but repaired in 1925. Subsequent owners included Robin Hilliard, a local draper, before being sold to an English owner who planned to turn it into a hotel.

However, in 1957, he sold it to An Óige, in whose possession the 36-bedroom hostel (25 beds in the main house, 11 in the Lodge) has remained — until now.

The property is partly zoned “M4 – Built-up Area/Mixed Use” and “G3 – Landscape Protection/Green/Recreation/Conservation”.

Avison Young says there’s “significant development potential for a variety of uses”: Guest house, nursing home, or educational (subject to planning grant).

The Gate Lodge at the entrance is of similar design to Aghadoe House and comprises of a two-room, single storey lodge.