One of the finest farms of the year is on the market in Co Kilkenny.

It’s c235ac, in one unit, at Columbcille, near Thomastown.

The farm is good-quality grassland with little waste. There is c30ac of maturing forestry.

Given the number of acres here, this farm is a contender for conversion to milk. There is also a large, traditional farmhouse and a farmyard with working cattle sheds.

The farm is being sold by Joseph Coogan Auctioneers. It is going for auction with a guide price of €10,000-€15,000/ac.

There is c211.5ac on one side of the road and the balance of c23.5ac facing it across the road.

The farm is on the Thomastown to Graiguenamanagh (R703) route on a stretch of straight main road. It’s about 1.6km from Thomastown, 17km from Kilkenny city, 21km from Paulstown, where there is access to the motorway, and 24km from New Ross.

Most of the land – c211.5ac – is on the righthand side when coming out from Thomastown. The balance of c23.5ac faces it across the main road.

The land is good quality.

There is over 700m of dual frontage on to the main road plus shorter frontage on to a side road and a farm lane. The land is laid out in some 20 main fields and paddocks.

The farmhouse and yard are in the centre of the farm. They are accessed by one entrance and a long private lane in from the public road.

The sheds in the yard are in good working condition.

The house – which was lived in until very recently – is approximately 300-years-old. It is two-storey and spacious at 2,785ft2. It has a kitchen with a Rayburn cooker, two reception rooms and a utility room. Upstairs are four bedrooms and the main bathroom. There is oil central heating. The house and gardens need to be tidied up and modernised.

The sheds in the yard are in good working condition. They include a two-bay, A-roofed slatted shed, a four-bay round-roofed shed with lean-to each side, a three-bay, round-roofed shed with meal bin, a four-bay round-roofed shed with a two-bay lean-to, two free-standing two-bay enclosed sheds and a number of older, slated traditional outbuildings.

The kitchen at Columbcille.

The house is spacious at 2,785 square feet.

One of the four bedrooms.

The farm will be sold by auction on Friday 21 October at 3pm in the agent’s auction room at Ballycomey House, Castlecomer. It will be offered in lots.

Lot 1 will be the farmhouse and yard on 211.525ac. This is made up of c181.12ac of permanent pasture plus c30.406ac of forestry. The forestry was planted in 2001. It is mainly sitka spruce and hybrid larch conifers with some broadleaved trees for landscaping and amenity purposes.

Lot 2 will be the remaining c23.5ac situated directly opposite Lot 1. Most of this is prime grazing land while approximately 4ac needs improvement. There is a natural water supply. Lot 3 will be the entire.

“This is one of the finest farms of its kind to be offered for sale in Kilkenny and surrounding counties in years,” auctioneer Joe Coogan said. “A large portion of the land would be suitable for tillage and the farm has potential to make an excellent dairy farm or stud farm.”

Find more property for sale on our classifieds website FarmersMarket.ie.