The freehold to the town of Dundalk, Co Louth, was sold at auction yesterday for an undisclosed sum.
The estate of the Earl of Roden in Dundalk, which includes ground rents, mineral and other rights, leases and manorial rights, was sold in its entirety by McArdle Auctioneers of Dundalk to purchasers who do not wish to be named.
The estate includes the freehold of streets, common areas, rights of way and the fair green.
The town's new owners will have rights to its ground rents, to mineral and other rights, to title documents, leases and maps, in- cluding a large and valuable 18th century estate map. They will also be entitled to manorial rights, which allow them to call their home the manor of Dundalk.
Some 100 active ground rents were included in the package and are payable by homeowners and a number of businesses and breweries.
The rents are in the region of three to five old Irish pounds, payable annually by homeowners, with breweries such as Harp on Carrick Road paying more.
The ground rents can be bought out at any time. Last year, four of the freeholds were sold, earning the estate €106,000. There are also three or four small vacant sites in the town which could be used for construction.
The first owner of Dundalk, Lord Dungannon, was given the town in the 16th century by King Charles II of England. In the following century Lord Dungannon sold out to Lord Limerick, the Earl of Clanbrassil, and later that century the property passed to Lord and Lady Roden. It has remained with the Roden estate ever since.
In a statement yesterday, Lord Roden said that they had accepted the tender from a party with "strong Dundalk connections", ending the family's historic links with the town over 300 years.
