One of the last remaining farms in Dublin city is to sell off part of its lands for housing. A 10-acre field fronting on to Griffith Avenue, in Dublin 9, which is to be sold by tender early in April, forms part of an 85-acre holding which has been farmed by the Eustace family since 1825. The proceeds of the sale will be used mainly to pay death duties.

Garvan Walsh of Gunne Commercial expects to secure in excess of £17 million for the site, one of the best to come on the market in north Dublin in recent years. It adjoins several mature housing development, including Griffith Avenue where detached houses frequently sell for between £230,000 and £450,000.

Three highly successful private hospitals and a convalescent home owned and run by the Eustace family are located on the farm, which is divided by the busy Dublin Airport road.

The Eustace family originally farmed 150 acres off the Drumcondra Road, land which was once owned by Sir John Rogerson, whose name is associated with one of the city quays. Dr John Eustace, a physician at Cork Street Fever Hospital, left his post in 1825 to set up Hampstead Private Hospital. Five generations later, the Eustace family runs the four private healthcare centres with a total of 150 beds, including Highfield Hospital and the Alzheimer Care Centre.

Although the tillage farm is now almost half the original size - each generation has had to sell off some land because of the encroaching city, to meet inheritance taxes or improve the hospital facilities - patients still have the use of mature grounds.

In the 1920s, the Eustace family gave three acres for the building of the Corpus Christi church. Almost a decade later, a long sliver of land was taken over by Dublin Corporation for the building of Griffith Avenue. Much later still, more land was set aside for Whitehall Garda Station, Plunkett School and Home Farm soccer grounds.

In the 1960s, the Gallagher Group acquired another part of the estate off Griffith Avenue for housing. Michael Eustace who along with his brother, Dr Denis Eustace, runs the Highfield Hospital Group, says that with the estate valued as development land, inheritance tax remained an immense problem. However, they were taking "some hard decisions" to allow a sixth generation of the family to continue to run the farm and the private health care group.