The excellent 250-acre farm at Clonegal, near Enniscorthy in Co Wexford sold after auction recently. The substantial package, consisting of a traditional farmhouse, a farmyard with a network of farm buildings and almost 250 acres of good land, was withdrawn from auction at €2.4m. The pre-auction guide was €2.3m-€2.5m.

The farm was sold after the auction for a sum believed to be just about the guide, although the final price was not disclosed. The agent handling the sale was David Quinn of Quinn Property. He offered the farm in a number of lots during the public auction. Speaking with the auctioneer after the auction, it was clear it took time. On two occasions, Quinn was forced to offer and re-offer the lots to the floor. In the end, it was the entire that was making the greater sum.

The auction

Lot one: The farm was offered in four individual lots in total. The first of these was the house and 104 acres of land. This opened at €800,000 or €7,700/ac and two bidders increased the price to €1m or €9,600/ac. At this point, the lot was held. When Quinn re-offered this package, it remained unchanged before being withdrawn. The land here contains almost 50 acres of tillage and over 50 acres is presented in grass. The fields in grass are stud rail-fenced and would have facilitated the equestrian operation on the farm. The house is a seven-bedroom traditional farmhouse that was built in 1825. It was in need of refurbishment.

Lot two: The second lot, 58 acres of top-quality land, opened at €400,000 or €6,900/ac before three bidders pushed the bidding up to €460,000 or almost €8,000/ac. This subsequently increased to €520,000 or almost €9,000/ac when the focus was back on this lot.

Lot three: The third lot was also 58 acres. Half of it is laid out in tillage while the other half is in grass and it would be of a heavier nature than lot two. Again, three bidders got stuck in from the moment it opened at €400,000 or €6,900/ac. Bidding on this lot was brisk and went all the way to €485,000 or €8,360/ac before being held. A number of further bids saw this rise to €500,000 or €8,600/ac.

Lot four: The smallest individual lot was the fourth lot. This holding was 24 acres of tillage ground and it opened at €100,000 or €4,100/ac before jumping to €160,000 or €6,700/ac. On return, this increased only slightly to €175,000 or €7,300/ac before being withdrawn.

The entire: On the first round of bidding, the entire was required to trump the €2.1m, that being the sum that the individual lots made. The entire was held at €2.2m. After round two of bidding, the individual lots did not surpass the €2.2m achieved by the entire, so the focus shifted to the entire only and the lots were withdrawn.

A number of more bids saw the entire reach €2.4m before it was withdrawn. According to Quinn, the farm was sold very soon after the auction to a businessman from the south Wicklow area. Local reports suggest that he is a prominent and well-known business man in the quarrying industry.

The auction took place in Mount Wolseley Hotel, Tullow, Co Carlow.