An idyllic Irish estate in the 'Golden Vale' has come up for sale for the first time in 350 years

Top story

The Barne Estate is a delightful estate for sale in Ireland — but prospective buyers will need deep pockets to meet the €13.5 million price tag.

Those dreaming of an idyllic life in the Emerald Isle will be thrilled to see a wonderful property which has come up for sale in Co Tipperary’s Golden Vale: the thriving, 751-acre Barne estate, on the market at €13.5m (£11.8m).

For those keen on the main house but not looking for such a large swathe of land, the property is also being offered in a series of lots. And at the very heart is Barne House and surrounds, designated as Lot 1 with a guide price of €2.5m, which comprises the imposing, south-facing, principal estate house set in 105 acres.

The land includes formal gardens, parkland, pasture and woodland, which enjoys panoramic views across its own lake and rolling farmland towards the Knockmealdown Mountains on the horizon.

The mansion house itself is built on three storeys around a historic courtyard, and dates from the 17th century.

It was extended in about 1870 with the addition of a château-style roof and a dormer attic storey.

It now offers 16,900sq ft of living space on four floors, including four main reception rooms, 12 bedrooms and extensive secondary accommodation.

A guide of €9m is quoted for Lot 2, comprising some 552 acres of ring-fenced arable farmland, pasture and mature woodland, with frontage to three public roads. Lot 3, priced at €1.55m, is a single block of 94 acres of mainly arable land to the north-west of the estate, with shed storage for 1,000 tons of grain.

Lot 4, on offer at €300,000, is the four-bedroom Monkstown House, a two-storey detached house of traditional construction set in a pretty, half-acre garden, with its own private entrance off the main N24.

Owned by the same family for more than 350 years, the pristine Barne estate near Clonmel, was established in the mid 1600s by Richard Moore, a glover from Barnstaple, Devon, who made his fortune as a land agent and sheep farmer in the rich farming land of south-east Tipperary.

Political appointments and financial favours from the Crown made him a potent force in local politics, and, at his death, his landholdings included Barne, Chancellorstown and Hoare Abbey in Tipperary, as well as Moore Hill and Kilworth in Co Cork.

Barne lies in an area of rich limestone land that is home to one of the world’s most iconic stud farms, and is currently run as a thriving, 600-acre arable enterprise by Richard Thomson-Moore, a graduate of the Royal Agricultural University, Cirencester, who took over the running of the estate following his father’s sudden death in 2015. Tipperary agents REA Stokes & Quirke are joint agents with Savills in the sale of the estate.

The Barne Estate is for sale at €13.5 million — see more pictures and details.