An Grianán Estate, Speenogue, Burt, Co Donegal, was launched to the market last week. Standing on circa 2,400 acres, the estate is one of the biggest lowland farms to arrive on the market in the country over the past decade and undoubtedly is a property that will resonate with a lot of people right across the country.

Non-residential, an Grianán Estate comes to the market with winter housing facilities for up to 400 cattle, an extensive pumping system, about 1,700 acres of working land and circa 700 acres of lake and foreshore. Located on the north coast between Letterkenny and Derry city, the property has been run on a commercial basis and, in more recent years, almost 1,300 acres has been farmed organically.

Located on the shores of Lough Swilly, much of An Grianán Estate was reclaimed from the sea at the end of the 19th century. Positioned below sea level, a sophisticated drainage and pumping system was installed by a specialist Dutch company in the late 1950s on the instructions of the then owner Dr McDonald.

The drainage system incorporates four large pumps that kick in automatically when water levels in the drains rise. These pump the water into the lake and once the tide goes out, the sluice gates open to let off the excess water. After McDonald, the farm was in the ownership of the Thompson and Graham families, respectively, before being acquired by the current owner, Donegal Investment Group, in the late 1990s. At one stage, An Grianán Estate spanned up to 3,000 acres, with various sections sold off by different parties down through the years, the most recent being circa 245 acres in 2014.

With the exception of four individual blocks (amounting to circa 134 acres) located a short distance away, the bulk of the land is set out in one large 2,271-acre unit. This unit incorporates a 477-acre fresh water lake (Inch lake) and about 225 acres of foreshore.

In all, there are about 1,700 acres of working ground (almost 1,270 acres arable and 400 acres grazing) on the estate. The majority of the land is currently leased or under a conacre arrangement.

Presently, about 437 acres is home to the largest organic dairy herd in the country, extending to 500 cows and followers, owned by the Witherow family, who have taken out a 25-year lease on the land. The remaining land is used to grow potatoes, clover, vegetables, winter and spring cereals and grass, both organically and conventionally.

In the main, the majority of the fields are big, level and easily worked and are accessed from an extensive network of farm roadways. The farm features some of the most productive and fertile land in the country and every inch of it is generating some form of income, including the lake and foreshore.

Situated in the centre lies an extensive range of concrete aprons, cattle sheds, storage sheds and silage and slurry facilities.

Buildings include a 34-unit herringbone milking parlour with 25,500-litre bulk tank, two cubicle sheds suitable to accommodate up to 320 cows with slurry facilities, a large open silage slab and eight stables. There is also a group of buildings used for the washing and cold storage of vegetables while a further three sheds are used to store fodder and partly accommodate livestock.

For sale by private treaty through Pat O’Hagan and Harriet Grant, Savills, Dublin, the property has generated a nice stream of interest both north and south of the border since officially going on the market last week.

One of the big attractions to the property is the sheer scale, which is why it is being offered for sale in one lot only. To this end, it may also appeal to parties in the UK – who are more than familiar with properties of this scale – and will also be marketed through the country estates team in Savills UK in the coming weeks.

The guide price is in the region of €17m or roughly €10,000/acre for the arable land. It certainly should make for an interesting sale over the coming months.