180-acre Bective Demesne on the market

Co Meath/€12 million: One of Meath's finest estates will be a trophy buy for one of the country's new multi-millionaires. Property Editor Orna Mulcahy reports

One of finest estates in Co Meath, Bective Demesne near Navan, has been put on the market by its reclusive owner, the former Bula Mines chief Michael Wymes.

The walled estate with 180 acres of prime Meath land could fetch close to €12 million when it is sold by Colliers Jackson-Stops in the coming months.

The 1850s house surrounded by parkland running down to the Boyne will be seen as a trophy home by many of the country's newly minted multi-millionaires. With its grand hallway, six bedrooms and five bathrooms, it's an ideal country home with great potenial. While it may be bought as a private residence, it is more likely to be developed, possibly as a hotel and country club in the style of two other Meath estates, Dunboyne Castle and Killeen. The grounds include two gate lodges, a stableyard and three cottages.

With its 1.5 miles of tree-lined avenues and 50 acres of river bank and woodland, Bective was at one time a fine sporting estate and farm. From the 1920s it was owned by wealthy Americans, the Birds, who sold it in 1960 to the Wachman family. They in turn sold it to Michael Wymes in the late 1970s.

Wymes, a former vet, fought and lost one of the longest running battles in Irish legal history when he sued the Government and Tara Mines in relation to the ownership and control of Bula Mines.

Another legal battle lost by Mr Wymes was his attempt to stop a 950-metre road cutting through the grounds of the protected estate.

Bective has extensive road frontage along the Navan-Trim Road and part of the land has now been fenced off for the new N3 motorway.

Close by is the tiny village of Bective, which was immortalised by the writer Mary Lavin, in her first collection of short stories, Tales from Bective Bridge (1943). She lived on the Abbey Farm, which adjoins the Bective estate, and includes the remains of the Cistercian monastery, Bective Abbey, which was used in the filming of Braveheart.