Honeymount House and farm, a country estate comprising a period, six-bedroom house, a working farmyard with a milking parlour that sits on 171.5 acres, was sold at public auction last week for €1.51m. The estate is situated at Dunkerrin, Co Tipperary.

Auctioneer Vincent Ryan of Thomas V Ryan Auctioneers, Thurles, offered the farm in lots and in its entire.

Lot one comprised 40 acres and was bid as far as €420,000 by a neighbouring farmer. The second lot, 64 acres, was bid to €480,000 by another farmer and the third lot, which extended to the house and farmyard on 67.5 acres, was bid to €600,000. The combined total for the three lots was €1.5m.

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A solicitor acting in trust on behalf of a farmer then made the winning bid of €1.51m for the farm in its entire, substantially exceeding the guide of €1.45m.

Stockbroker with a big heart buys farm in Co Offaly

Last week, auctioneer Matt Dunne, Portarlington, offered a 75-acre farm situated at Raheenakeeran, Walsh Island, Co Offaly, for sale by public auction.

A crowd of 30 people gathered in the Orchard Hotel, Portarlington, to view proceedings, most of them locals, save for a local businessman from Portalington.

Dunne offered the farm in two lots to start with. Lot one, comprising 39.5 acres of tillage land, was offered and bid to €200,000 by the local businessman. The second lot, which is all in grass, extended to 35.5 acres and received no bids. Dunne then offered the farm in its entirety but no offers were made.

“I thought all hope was lost and I was just about to withdraw the property when I received a phone call,” says Dunne. A stockbroker based in Dublin but formally from the area called to see if the farm had been sold.

“The stockbroker was interested in the farm but didn’t want to stand in the way of any local farmers who may wish to buy the land. When Dunne informed him that the only bidder on the land was a local businessman, he threw his hat into the ring and made an offer for the entire farm. The local businessman then bid €400,000 for the farm in its entire.

Dunne said he withdrew the farm and three and half hours later he struck a deal with the Dublin-based stockbroker for the entire farm for a figure believed to be very close to the original guide price of €500,000.