£3m-plus sought for Celbridge Stud farm

One of the country's leading stud farms, Corbally House and Stud, at Celbridge, Co Kildare, is expected to make in excess of £3 million when it goes to auction on October 7th. The early 18th century main house along with 145 acres has been beautifully maintained, making this one of the finest stud farms of its size in Ireland.

Corbally has been owned and run for the past 27 years by veterinary surgeon Sean Collins and his wife, Henne, who are now scaling down their blood-stock interests. Joint selling agents Lisney and Coonan Auctioneers expect strong interest in the stud because of its excellent facilities, its location within 16 miles of Dublin city and its international reputation - it has been voted one of the top 10 commercial studs in Europe in a poll conducted by the Thoroughbred Times.

Corbally has had four stallions in recent years, including its flagship stallion Persian Bold, who sired 400 winners of 1,350 races which were worth £13.2 million. Persian Bold died earlier this year but is remembered in a bronze statue which forms the centrepiece of a sweeping front lawn.

According to Susan Kirk of Coonans, Corbally is one of only a small number of public stud farms to have come on the market in recent years, probably because of the buoyant conditions being experienced by the blood-stock industry.

The two-storey over basement house is located in the centre of the farm and is approached by a tree-lined avenue. The house was extended and remodelled in the 1930s and has some outstanding rooms, notably a large reception hall, a drawing-room running the full depth of the house and a double sized dining-room ideal for entertaining on a grand scale. The drawing-room has pine wall panelling, two large windows overlooking the front lawns and two more focused on the rear gardens. The dining-room is equally charming, with two matching carved mantelpieces and Georgian grates, and two huge bay windows with French doors opening on to the mature rear gardens. There is a good sized study off the hall with an equally fine period fireplace. Upstairs, are six bedrooms, two of them with en suite bathrooms. The spacious main bedroom has a Georgian fireplace.

A second staircase at the rear of the house leads to two attic rooms, which would make ideal playrooms for children. There are also four rooms in the basement. The stud has a separate farm entrance with a manager's house near the road. There are also three staff apartments next to the foaling yard, one of a range of stud buildings. There are 84 loose boxes, along with an indoor exercising school and an automatic horse walker.