St Patrick’s in Kilkenny, plus 18 acres, set for sale with €2.75m guide price

Agents Quinn Agnew are guiding more than €2.75m for the St Patrick’s complex and say it offers a range of development potential as a wedding venue, boutique hotel or sports facility.

It was built in 1850 as a model farm by the Gough family

Last October, Kilkenny County Council announced a plan to borrow €3.5m to buy the complex for accommodating Ukrainian refugees but that fell through.

The building has a long history. It was built in 1850 as a model farm by the Gough family, and later became an agricultural school for local farmers.

In 1879, it changed hands as the Bishop of Ossory provided St Patrick’s plus an 80-acre farm to the Sisters of Charity to operate an industrial school for 186 boys up to the age of 10.

In 1966 the religious order closed the industrial school and changed its services plan to the provision of residential services for 25 children with intellectual disabilities.

In 2018 the nuns transferred the facilities to Special Occupation Scheme Kilkenny Ltd (SOS) to cater for elderly adults with special needs who needed nursing care.

The complex is currently owned by Aurora, which is a community-based service providing supports to people with intellectual disabilities.

Now standing on an 18.3-acre campus, the complex comes with 20 houses together with a period building and chapel on the Kells Road. The houses could accommodate 112 beds while its leisure facilities include a swimming pool and sports hall.