With an original guide price of €400,000, the 110-acre residential farm at Ardandra, Legan, Co Longford, sold for an astounding €800,000 at auction on Friday last. Included in the 110 acres is circa 41.5 acres of forestry with the remaining circa 68 acres of grazing ground. Also included is a range of derelict farm buildings and storage sheds that are in need of complete renovation.

The lands are divided by a country road and therefore presented the opportunity to be offered in lots at the auction. Offered to the room first, however, was the entire, which opened at a bid of €500,000.

Swift bidding from three interested parties quickly saw this accelerate to €800,000. The individual lots were then offered. However, there was no interest from the large crowd of more than 50 people who turned up for the auction.

With no interest in the lots, the entire was placed on the market at €800,000 with the hammer firmly dropping.

The buyer is the retired TD James Bannon, who already runs a beef farm in the area. He described the land as “one of the finest farms in Longford”.

The forestry land was planted in 2013 and has a further 16 years of premia remaining in receipt of payments in excess of €7,600/year. The sale was handled by Murtagh Bros Auctioneers, Mullingar and Edgeworthstown.