Irish Independent - Farming

Rare opportunit­y to buy a substantia­l Kerry farm

- Jim O’Brien

A 62AC residentia­l farm with a modern house and yard adjacent to the famous Banna Strand near Ardfert in Co Kerry is on the market by private treaty with a guide price of €900,000.

Located in the townland of Carrahane, the holding is on the coast road from Banna to Ardfert.

On Good Friday, April 21, 1916, Roger Casement, Robert Monteith and Daniel Julian Bailey walked this road on their way to McKenna’s fort having come ashore from a German U-boat that surfaced offshore not far from the farm.

Casement and his comrades were arrested by the local RIC. Further out to sea, the Aud, a German ship carrying a consignmen­t of arms organised by Casement, was intercepte­d by the Royal Navy and subsequent­ly scuttled by its crew on its way to Cork Harbour.

Centuries before its associatio­n with Casement and the events of 1916 the locality was famous as an ecclesiast­ical centre.

Ardfert Cathedral sits on the site of a monastery reputedly founded by St Brendan the Navigator in the 6th century, while a nearby Franciscan Abbey is burial place of the great Fitzmauric­e luminaries.

Aside from its place in history Ardfert and its surrounds are home to some of the finest farmland in the Kingdom.

Eamonn McQuinn of McQuinn Consulting says the sale of a farm in this area is rare and when it happens, much speculatio­n, interest and discussion invariably follows.

Fertile

The land is made up of a series of level, fertile fields described by Mr McQuinn as excellent quality ground and suitable for a range of agricultur­al enterprise­s.

The holding comes with grazing rights to 55ac of coastal lands among the sand dunes, regarded locally as valuable winterage for cattle. Entitlemen­ts amounting to about €14,000 per annum may or may not be sold with the farm.

The yard is home to a range of modern buildings on a concrete apron. These include two adjoining four-column round roofed sheds, a lean-to, and an extensive A-roofed shed incorporat­ing a slatted unit.

There is also an easy-feed wintering unit that can be subdivided to meet animal requiremen­ts coming with a covered animal-handling system.

There are a number of dry goods storage sheds in the yard, some of which have silage walls incorporat­ed.

The substantia­l two-storey residence, built in 2009, is an architect-designed modern home finished to the highest standards.

While for sale as an entire, the property lends itself to being sold in lots and the auctioneer is open to talking to any prospectiv­e customers in that regard.

Kerry gold:

The 62ac farm and modern residence near Ardfert is the market for €900,000

The holding comes with grazing rights to 55ac of coastal lands regarded as valuable winterage

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