A 75-acre farm located at Castletown, Tara, Co Meath, made one of the strongest prices of the year when it was sold at public auction last week. The land was sold under the hammer for €1.19m, or €15,867 per acre.

Selling agent Stephen Barry of Raymond Potterton Auctioneers, Navan, described the auction as “electric”. He added: “There was plenty of money in the room and it was a cleanly fought and powerful auction.”

The land was offered for sale before a packed auction room in the Potterton sales office with three bidders contesting the sale. An opening offer of €700,000 got the auction under way with offers rising in increments of €10,000 and €20,000. After an offer of €1m, the farm was put on the market.

The farm was eventually knocked down to a solicitor, believed to be acting in trust on behalf of a local farmer, after his bid of €1.19m was enough to secure the land.

The land at Castletown is situated just a stone’s throw from the Hill of Tara and has frontage on to three separate roads, including the M3 motorway. The land is all in one block and divided into three large divisions. The land is all in grass and has been used to fatten beef stores and suckler cows.

Located at the centre of the farm is a three-span modern cattle shed with adjacent cattle handling facilities. An internal roadway system allows for ease of access to all parts of the farm.

Compact farm in Tipp makes €550,000

Last week, auctioneer Pat Quirke of PF Quirke & Co, Clonmel, sold a 41.6-acre farm at public auction for the very strong price of €550,000, or just shy of €13,500 per acre. The land is situated at Ballyboy, Clogheen, Co Tipperary, and is described by Quirke as “top-quality land with absolutely no waste, which is among the finest in south Tipperary”.

Around 20 people attended the auction at Quirke’s offices in Clonmel last Tuesday, where an opening offer of €400,000 got proceedings under way. Offers increased in increments of €10,000 all the way up to €500,000.

After a brief pause, the auction recommenced with offers increasing in €5,000 increments.

The land was placed on the market after Quirke received an offer of €520,000 and eventually sold under the hammer for €550,000 to a party believed to be acting in trust on behalf of a local farmer.

The land at Ballyboy is all in one block and laid out in three divisions, divided by mature hedging. The land also has the benefit of almost 1km of frontage on to the R665 road between Clogheen and Ardfinnan.

No messing at Borrisokane

A 62-acre residential farm situated at Green Lane, Borrisokane, Co Tipperary, was sold at public auction last Friday in a snappy and swift auction.

Borrisokane-based auctioneer Noel Brennan said he came to the conclusion before the auction that the farm was worth no less than €10,000 per acre so he put a reserve of €600,000 on the farm to “cut out any messing”.

Brennan immediately received an offer of €600,000 and put the land on the market straight away. From here, six bidders made offers for the land but it ultimately boiled down to just two people.

From €700,000, the offers increased by €10,000 at a time until a final offer of €780,000, or €12,580 per acre, was enough to secure the farm for a Nenagh-based accountant acting in trust on behalf of a local farmer/businessman. The auction was well attended on the day with almost 100 people packed into the Yanks pub in Borrisokane.

Brennan described the farm at Green Lane as “exceptional farmland with no waster whatsoever.” The land is currently all in grass but is suitable for any purpose and also has the benefit of substantial frontage on to two roads that bound the farm. The farmhouse is a two-storey period home comprising a sitting room, living room, kitchen and four bedrooms, one of which is en suite.

To the rear of the house is a unique cobblestone courtyard with a range of cut-stone buildings, out offices and a newly built four-bay shed with double lean-tos. The farm has been rented for the last number of years but Brennan says it has been maintained and farmed to the very highest standards with top-class farmers in the area.