Auctioneer on home turf with sale of north Galway farm
It will be a property deal with a difference for Michael Mullery when he negotiates the sale of the farm where he grew up, writes Jim O’Brien
It isn’t often an auctioneer gets to handle the sale of ‘the home place’ and when it happens it can represent a tug of war between the heart and the head.
Galway auctioneer Michael Mullery is selling the house and farm where he grew up at Newtown, Abbeyknockmoy in Co Galway. The residential farm extending to 33.5ac is on the private treaty market with a guide of €450,000.
Michael remembers farming the place with his father and his siblings, one of whom is Pat Mullery of DNG. “It was a mixed farm, we had cattle and sheep and grew beet, potatoes and corn,” he says.
“I remember working with the old reaper and binder, there was no combine in those days. That size of farm was a substantial and viable holding at that time. We had an out-farm of 11ac a short distance away at Feigh, Abbeyknockmoy and we sold that last March.”
Michael’s father died in 1988 and his brother, who was farming the land, died suddenly in 2001. His mother passed away last year and the family has now decided to sell. Age and succession are the primary reasons for selling, “I’m too old to go farming at this stage, none of my siblings are interested and my sons are city dwellers,” Michael explains.
Situated 13km from Tuam, 16km from Athenry and 38km from Galway Abbeyknockmoy, the Mullery homestead is located in some of the best farming country in Galway.
The holding at Newtown is no exception in this area and is home to both grazing and tillage. The house is a traditional two-storey farmhouse that has been very well-maintained and extended over the years.
The accommodation includes a living room, dining room kitchen and utility room with four bedrooms and a shower room. The house is finished to the highest standards and entirely habitable.
The land extending to 33.5ac has plenty of road frontage along with river frontage on to the Abbert river. The entire farm has been tilled in recent years and is now divided almost evenly between grass and tillage with 16,5ac in stubbles.
The yard has a range of useful farm buildings that include an A-roofed slatted shed, a four-column haybarn, and a range of more traditional sheds.
The place has the makings of a lovely holding for a new entrant to farming or as a hobby farm. It can be bought in lots or as an entire with the house on 0.5ac available as one parcel and guided at €200,000 while the land and yard on 33ac is guided at €250,000 or almost €7,600/ac.
Mr Mullery believes this is a competitive price for the land, quoting the recent sale of the out-farm hat saw it make €9,000/ac.