COUNTRY HOUSE SALE:AN OVERSEAS buyer is to pay in the region of €3.5 million for a 242-acre country estate in Thomastown, Co Kilkenny, owned by the property developer and charity founder Niall Mellon.

Colliers International had been seeking €3.75 million for the Coolmore estate, which was bought in 2005 for over €6 million.

The latest sale is the largest of a country property so far this year.

The Niall Mellon Township Trust has built more than 15,000 new houses for poor South Africans since 2002.

Mellon has substantial property interests in Ireland and Britain including the 7.5 acre former Bank of Ireland playing fields at Knockrabo House off Mount Anville Road in Goatstown, Dublin 14, which cost €50 million at the height of the property boom.

The site has been the subject of a lengthy planning dispute. The loans on this and other development land acquired by Mellon are understood to have been transferred to Nama.

Another property, Marley Grange, on about 12 acres in Rathfarnham, Co Dublin, bought from the British Embassy for more than €8 million, is also expected to go for sale in the coming months.

The Kilkenny estate is located in the stunning River Nore valley about 11 miles from Kilkenny city and within easy access of the M9 Dublin-Waterford motorway.

The large Georgian house of 729 sq m (7,847 sq ft) has a handsome entrance hall and four spacious reception rooms, a country- style kitchen and a self-contained nanny-flat. Overhead there are six bedrooms.

Access to the house is along a tree-lined avenue with two gated entrances. There are fishing rights along one bank of the Nore.

Mellon spent a small fortune on the grounds including the laying of four kilometres of cobble lock pathways.

He also restored the walled garden.