A 35-acre tract of land near the new €190 million Ennis bypass has been sold by St Flannan's College for €8.5 million.
The sale of the land at Clareabbey, Clarecastle, means the college can explore alternative uses for the listed St Flannan's building, a former boarding school, including the provision of a third-level facility for Ennis.
The college withdrew the land, bequested by a farmer, from public auction in Ennis last December when bids failed to top €7.1 million.
Auctioneer Paddy Vaughan confirmed yesterday that the land was sold in trust to a client of Ennis solicitor Des Houlihan.
College president Fr Brendan Moloney said yesterday that he does not know the identity of the purchaser. He said the money from the sale is to be ring-fenced for the development of the boarding school building.
A condition was inserted in the bequest that proceeds from the land be used for the boarding school only.
Fr Moloney said a feasibility study on the future development of the boarding school building has been carried out.
The building is protected under the Ennis and Environs Development Plan, which imposes restrictions on what the owner can do with the site, while it also imposes obligations not to allow the building fall into a state of disrepair.
He said the redevelopment will cost about €20 million and a committee has been examining options over the past 18 months.
The land has supplied food to students at the boarding school over the past 50 years. The boarding school closed its doors last month after more than 120 years in operation.
The parcel, zoned residential, has extensive land frontage on the N18, linking Limerick and Galway. It is on the outskirts of Ennis and adjacent to the Ennis bypass, which is under construction.
With the zoning, the site will be able to accommodate 560 houses, putting an eventual overall value of more than €100 million on the development.
