Donegal farm on 2,400 acres by Lough Swilly to make €17m

One of Europe's largest organic farms, the 2,400 acre (971.16 hectare) Grianán Estate in Co Donegal, is being sold with a guide price of €17 million.

Pat O’Hagan of Savills is launching an international marketing campaign later this week to find a buyer for the unique estate on the shores of Lough Swilly on the north coast of Donegal.

It is owned by Donegal Investment Group plc, previously known as Donegal Creameries, and has an annual rental and other incomes of between €400,000 and €500,000 in recent years. Most of the land is in Speenoge, Burt, within 20 minutes' drive of both Letterkenny and Derry.

The vast acreage includes the 500 acre Inch Lake and consists mainly of land reclaimed from Lough Swilly and the sea at the end of the 19th century, making it particularly fertile and suitable for a range of farming enterprises.

A sophisticated drainage system installed in the late 1950s by a specialist Dutch firm means that water levels are monitored and controlled by a well maintained pumping system.

For the past 10 years the farm has been producing over 3,000 tonnes of organic produce including milk, vegetables and cereals.

Several Irish household brands are sourced from the farm including producers specialising in potatoes, wheat, oats and barley.

A substantial portion of the estate is leased to one particular milk producer who runs the largest organic dairy farm in the country. He holds a 25-year lease on 400 acres from 2008 and the exclusive use of another 400 acres on a rotation basis. The various farming activities function successfully because the huge farm is laid out in large, accessible divisions.

Most parts of the estate overlook Lough Swilly which is famous for its wildlife including dolphins, porpoise, sea birds, geese and swans.

The lake also includes several shipwrecks including the White Star Line's SS Laurentic which was sunk by a German mine in 1917.

The estate has a particularly spacious farm yard with covered buildings extending to almost 8,000sq m (86,110sq ft). There is, however, no farmhouse with the estate.

Savills, who are managing the private treaty sale, also handled the sale in 2008 of one of the UK’s largest farms, a 17,808 acre estate bought by a charitable trust for £249 million.

The under bidders will in due course be notified of the forthcoming Donegal sale

Pat O’Hagan said yesterday that for anyone with a vested interest in the Irish agri-food industry, the sale of the Grianán Estate would be significant news due to the sheer scale and quality of the property. There has already been a high level of interest shown by potential buyers including investors, active farmers and farming companies. No other opportunity of this scale is likely to be presented again in the Irish farming property market for the foreseeable future, he said.