Described as “suitable for any agricultural enterprise” by the auctioneer handling the sale, Ed Donohoe of Donohoe Properties: Town and Country, the property flew at auction recently. Situated in the rural townland of Mooneen, Graiguenamangh, the lands are located approximately 3km from Thomastown in a rural farming hinterland, which is accessible to most services and amenities.

Opening its doors at €600,000, bidding rose to €725,000, at which point the holding was put on the market. It was here that the brisk bidding began.

An auctioneer and a farmer began a ferocious battle for the prize, which took over 70 bids to decide, with installments increasing minimally each time by €1,000 and €2,000.

In the end, Pat Gannon, an auctioneer acting on behalf of a local tillage and dairy farmer, won the day for a grand total of €847,000, or over 10,300/acre. While there were three bidders on the day, two bidders showed serious interest. According to Donohoe, the auction room was packed for proceedings.

Rare

Donohoe told Irish Country Living that parcels of this size rarely come to the market. For this reason interest was very high among the local community, however there were reservations before the auction that the guide price of €800,000 would be beyond many farmers’ financial means.

Sold in the entire

The lands were first offered in lots, but offers were only placed on the entire. The lands themselves are of high quality.

The first lot is 10 acres of very high-quality land. This particular lot had been tillage land for the last number of years. With plenty of road frontage, this parcel has most recently been set in winter corn.

According to Donohoe, this holding is of the highest quality and interest has been high. Lot number one was guided for €12,000-€13,000/acre, or €130,000, prior to auction.

The second lot is a circa 46-acre package located in between lot one and lot three. Divided into five plots, the fields are well laid out.

According to the auctioneer work could be carried out on certain parts of this parcel to extract the full potential from it. Lot two was guided for €8,000/acre, or circa €368,000.

The third lot is a 26-acre holding and was guided for €10,000-€12,000/acre before the auction.