Dairy farmer pays €12,000 per acre for Louth property

BELLEWSTOWN Bridge Farm extending to 41.65ac at Bellewstown in Co Meath sold in recent weeks making €500,000 or around €12,000/ ac. The property was guided prior to auction at €450,000.

Located 2.5km from Bellewstown Racecourse and 50m off the Duleek to Julianstown Road the farm has almost 500m of road frontage along with lane access. It is comprised of grazing ground, a yard and the remains of the mill.

It fronts the Rivers Nanny and Bradden and has the remains of an old water mill and a dormant millpond that could be revived.

The yard is located at the centre of the farm and includes a three-column lean to cattle shed, an old stone cow byre, a three-column walled and covered haybarn with a two-bay lean-to.

The land is in four fields with road frontage and river frontage. It is described as good grazing ground that hasn’t been ploughed since the 1940s, even though surrounded by tillage farms.

The mill is an interesting feature with part of the millrace remaining along with the roofless mill and a millpond that is empty and overgrown. A foundation stone indicates that the mill was founded in 1773.

At auction proceedings got under way when Frank Flynn of Drogheda auctioneers Robert B Daly accepted a bid of €420,000.

Two bidders, a local dairy farmer and an outsider took to the fray and bidding continued in tranches of €5,000 and €10,000 until the hammer fell at €500,000 in favour of the dairy farmer.

According to Frank Flynn, both buyers and sellers were delighted with the outcome.