In the first Dublin house auction of the year, a large Georgian semi-detached house at 24 Wellington Road in Ballsbridge was withdrawn at £1 million by HOK Residential. It is now seeking £1.55 million

In good decorative order, the 3,000 sq ft three-storey over basement property is currently arranged as a four-bedroom house with three bathrooms. There is offstreet parking to the front and an enclosed patio garden to the rear.

In Co Waterford, a UK businessman is believed to have paid over £2 million for Strancally Castle which overlooks the River Blackwater at Knockanore. The sale, which includes 55 acres of land, was handled by joint agents William Montgomery of Sotheby's and Ganly Walters.

The Gothic-style castle, located seven miles from Youghal, has changed hands many times over the years. It has 11 main bedrooms, five of them en suite, and four further bedroom suites in the tower. There are also a number of large reception rooms, including an inner hall, diningroom, drawingroom and library. The conservatory is in need of restoration.

The castle, built between 1820 and 1826 near the site of the original 13th century Strancally Castle, is upstream from the spot where the Bride river joins the Blackwater, and overlooks the Knockmealdown mountains. In 1855, the castle and 5,000 acres had to be sold because of family debts. It was eventually bought by an Anglo-Irish family, the Whitelocke-Lloyds, for less than £10,000, a fraction of what it had cost to build.

The estate was acquired by the Land Commission in 1959. The castle was subsequently sold to a German and operated as a school until 1976. It later was bought by an architect who spent a small fortune upgrading it. In commercial sales, O'Shea O'Toole & Partners have secured in the region of £1 million after auction for Walshe's Bar and Restaurant at Ferrybank, Waterford. In Co Tipperary, joint agents DTZ Sherry FitzGerald and Sherry FitzGerald Walsh have sold The Tinvane Service Station and car showroom in Carrick-on Shannon for over £1 million.