Record price paid at hotly contested auction of ‘farm of a lifetime’ in County Limerick

A COUNTY Limerick “farm of a lifetime” has sold for an accumulated sum of €3,820,000 or €17,363 per acre.

The 220 acre residential holding in Gortmore, Feenagh was brought to market by auctioneer Pat Dooley.

The group director of REA Dooley Group described it as “truly one of the best farms that has come up in the Mid-West region for some time”.

The farm is of excellent quality, all in permanent pasture and reseeded down through the years. It is located in a very rich hinterland of dairy farmers and laid out in easily managed divisions, well-fenced with access to mains water.

There are two farm roadways going through the farm from both the southern and western boundaries for ease of access. The farm buildings consist of a three column hay barn, cubicle shed, storage shed and other old ancillary outbuildings.

The residence is a four bedroom two-storey traditional style farmhouse which was recently rented out but is in need of modernisation.

Mr Dooley highlighted the land’s excellent location in the village of Feenagh and its future development potential. There is extensive road frontage on two adjoining roads.

“The main sewer actually runs on the farm so there is good scope for future development with ample road frontage for one-off houses,” said Mr Dooley.

The auctioneer was a busy man in the run-up to the auction due the the volume of enquiries from dairy farmers and those in the business community.

The farmhouse and 33 acres was sold privately prior to the auction, which was held in the Charleville Park Hotel at the end of April.

Limerick Live has learned from local sources that a deal was struck for around €1.2m by a local business person with the interest of the future development of Feenagh in their mind. The village is well located 20 minutes from Charleville and Newcastle West and approximately 35 minutes from Limerick city.

Mr Dooley said there was a packed auction room of around 60 people with a good attendance from Feenagh and more interested parties online.

There was plenty of interest in lot 1 of 112.4 acres and lot 2 75.2 acres but the decision was made to bring the “entire” of 187.6 acres to the floor.

The last man standing at €2,620,000 or €14,010 per acre was none other than property director at GVM auctioneers, Tom Crosse – a man who is more used to being the one with the gavel in his hand than bidding!

Mr Crosse was acting in trust although this appears to have been lost in translation with some thinking he was bidding for himself and planning a change of career to dairy farming.

When contacted by Limerick Live a smiling Mr Crosse said: “Three people have rung me after the auction offering me second-hand milking parlours!”

However, Mr Crosse remained tight-lipped about who he was representing at the auction. Limerick Live has learned from local sources that it was bought by two local dairy farmers.

Mr Dooley wished the vendors and the new owners the very best of luck in the future. The total sum of €3,820,000 was more than €300,000 higher than he had guided before the private sale and auction.

“We’re delighted with how it all went. It was a very good overall result. It was a record price for the area. It is an exceptional farm of land – it ticked all the boxes,” said Mr Dooley.

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