Cashel’s Deanery House comes to auction with €800,000 guide price

Cashel’s Deanery House.

Cashel, Co Tipperary
€800,000 pre-auction AMV
Size	378 sq m (4,050 sq ft)
Bedrooms	8
Bathrooms	5
BER	Exempt

There's a pretty impressive auction room venue lined up for the sale of Cashel’s Deanery House – it’s to have its fate sealed in the sumptuous surroundings of the just-reopened Cashel Palace Hotel.

Not quite as old as the venerable 1730s hotel – which was acquired five years ago by Coolmore Stud owner John Magnier and family for €2.25m and which has since swallowed multiples of that in its makeover – The Deanery dates to 1790, is on more than nine acres in the town, and carries a price guide pre-auction of €800,000, via joint agents Liam O’Grady of DNG O’Grady, and Dougan FitzGerald.

They’re selling for the Representative Church Body of the Church of Ireland, which has used it as a rectory/vicarage since the 1960s, and quite ecumenically it also carries the slightly Catholic-sounding name “Maryville”.

Notably, apart from the actual Deanery, its size, history, period trim, and outbuildings, is the fact it has so much ground within Cashel and carrying town zoning, with the bulk of the 9.66 acres currently used for agriculture/pasture/grazing.

How much longer it remains in grass is a moot point.

With the town and hinterland overlooked by the limestone outcrop topped by the 900-year-old Rock of Cashel – once the seat of the Kings of Munster – auctioneer Liam O’Grady says the Georgian-era house is one of Cashel’s longest-established and landmark properties, within a stroll of the town centre (and of the Cashel Palace Hotel) in Cashel’s core, and with development already around it.

At present, it’s a 4,000+ sq ft property with up to eight bedrooms, in use until very recently, but now emptied of furnishings in advance of the auction on June 29, with an impressive courtyard cluster of outbuildings, some lofted and two-storey forming an enclosure.

The bulk of land is nearly all to the southeast side, with housing mostly built in the last two decades by some of the boundaries, and there are two access points; at Lowergate Square and Copperfield House.

The auctioneers describe them as “a mixture of walled gardens and field paddocks in an urban environment,” which, they say “provide more than ample pleasure ground and supporting lands to the Deanery House, which was their original usage and are unique in terms of their size and scope in a town centre location”. They add such a landbank in the town is unique “and could be developed in time for alternative uses, subject to planning permission”.

Possible uses could be niche hospitality – though the five-star 42-bed/eight suite Cashel Palace will hardly be beaten on period property luxe accommodation – or residential, with the house kept on a portion of the 9.6 acres and the rest considered for new housing in coming years.

The main Georgian residence, ringed by a sweeping drive past cast-iron gates and private, is square shaped with a hipped slate roof, deep eaves, fanlit front door and looking pretty in faded pastel pink dash, has timber sash windows and limestone sills, a timber lean-to conservatory, and many rooms include fireplaces, high ceilings, and decorative ceiling plasterwork.

VERDICT: Looks like the Deanery is ready to rock in Cashel once more in new hands. There could be quite the turnout in the rich surrounds of the venue, Cashel Palace. Might a Coolmore Stud client connection make a play? There’s grazing to be had for a thoroughbred or two in the bargain.