Your own picnic on the ‘biggest’ field in Ireland with guide price of €1.2m

A field is for sale in Stradbally, Co Laois. Nothing remarkable about that, you might say. Not until you hear that it stretches across 121 acres. The nonresidential farm at Ballymanus is to be auctioned on Friday week with a guide price of €1.2 million.

Auctioneer Jimmy Murtagh says he doesn't know if it's the biggest field in the country, "but it's the biggest field I've ever put on the market anyway. I couldn't believe it when I saw it – 121 acres in one field, not a fence, not a division in it."

The field, which will go under the hammer at the Killeshin Hotel, Portlaoise, is in a scenic area with 0.8km frontage on to the River Stradbally. “It’s a beautiful part of the world and it’s really top-class land. There’s not an inch of wasteland .”

The land is 4km outside Stradbally which has just recovered from the Electric Picnic and is now bracing itself for the National Ploughing Championships at Ratheniska. The owner was in tillage and the land is currently under malting barley but would be ideal for grazing or tillage, says Murtagh.