When Eyrefield Lodge Stud on 160 acres (65 hectares) on the edge of The Curragh was placed for sale through Kildare auctioneer Paddy Jordan last July seeking €4 million it was bound to attract strong interest. A historic place best known for producing Pretty Polly, one of the most successful fillies of all time, its location at the boundary of the Curragh on prime limestone breeding land made it highly attractive for local breeders.
The property has now sold for a sum understood to be about €3.7million to Grangemore Stud. A recent entry on the Property Price Register shows the property sold for €1.48 million (entries in the Register only relate to the sum paid for the residential property on one acre, the land value is not included). The balance paid of about €2.2 million attaches a value of about €14,000 per acre to the remaining 159 acres.
Grangemore Stud, owned by Guy O’Callaghan, already operates on 105 acres on the other side of The Curragh. The acquisition of Eyrefield will have made good strategic sense for further development of Grangemore’s thoroughbred breeding operation, which is now close to capacity in its current home.
What will become of Eyrefield Lodge and its spectacular gardens lovingly tended for years by Edmund and Sue Loder is unclear. While the house, which was built in 1760 as a hunting lodge, is ripe for refurbishment, the rambling grounds are a wonderful maze of rose gardens, pond gardens, wisteria walkways, and plants, ferns and specimens from all over the world. An enclosed graveyard too is home to some of Eyrefield's dearly departed greats including Pretty Polly, Spearmint, Spion Kop, Marwell and Marling.
Meanwhile, Edmund and Sue Loder are heading to London to be closer to family, and an online auction of Eyrefield Lodge’s contents is under way today and tomorrow through Sheppard’s Auction House.
