Farms and land come to market from Ayrshire to Kent

A combined enterprise of two farmsteads run across 493 acres in south Ayrshire offers good-quality land, a range of buildings, two farmhouses and a cottage.

Boghead and West Doura Farms, near Ayr, are offered for sale as a whole or in four lots.

Classified as 3.2 to 4.1, about 208 acres is in an arable rotation, while 285 acres is drilled with long-term grass leys.

At the Boghead farmstead there is a four-bedroom farmhouse with a courtyard flanked by traditional stone buildings, and at West Doura, a recently refurbished three-bedroom farmhouse.

Also included in the sale is Knowehead Cottage, a three-bedroom traditional stone property.

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The extensive farm buildings, both traditional and modern, include a grain store, an eight-bay cattle shed, cattle handling facilities and a straw shed.

A second cattle shed incorporates 128 cubicles, feed yokes, a central feed passage and automatic scrapers.

Two slurry towers have a combined capacity of about 1.4m litres, while the silage clamp can take about 90 acres of first-cut and 60 of second cut.

The property is being brought to the market by Davidson & Robertson, at offers of more than £3.86m for the whole.

Will Dalrymple, an associate with the firm, says the sale creates opportunities that will appeal to a range of buyers.

“It is all currently farmed as one unit and is an exceptionally well-maintained property with excellent fencing, buildings, good tracks and a recently laid tarmac drive,” he says.

North Yorkshire investment farm

An opportunity of a different kind comes to the market in North Yorkshire. Carr House Farm, at Kirby Misperton, near Pickering, is a fully equipped arable and grass holding.

The 74-acre former dairy farm is let on an Agricultural Holdings Act 1986 tenancy, with repairing and insuring responsibilities lying with the tenant.

It comes to the market for the first time in 150 years, with a guide price of £800,000.

Carr House Farm © AFP Consultants

Oliver Stones, a partner at selling agent Alnwick Farming and Property Consultants, says:

“The farm is currently owned by two sisters – one based in the UK and one in Canada – and they have decided to sell to make provision for their respective families going forwards.”

It was originally let in 1978, with the current tenant succeeding in 2010 as first successor.

Carr House Farm generates an annual rental income of £8,300, with the rent last reviewed in April 2021.

Currently in cereals and improved grass, the land is classified as Grade 4 and consists of bodied clayey and loamy clayey soils.

It is split into efficient field sizes that can accommodate modern machinery.

There is a range of traditional brick and stone farm buildings and also more modern buildings constructed by the tenant.

A substantial period farmhouse has been divided internally to create a main residence and a separate annexe.

The farmhouse needs updating, while the annexe has recently been renovated.

The tenant operates a touring caravan and camping site from the farm.

Kent arable land

A 78-acre block of arable land at Darenth Court Farm is coming to the market near Dartford, Kent, with medium- to long-term development potential.

The sale includes two parcels of productive arable land and a general-purpose building.

Darenth Court Farm © Ceres Property

It is the land’s strategic location on the outskirts of a village that provides the possibility of development.

The property is being sold with a 30-year overage clause requiring 30% of any uplift in value on the grant of planning consent for any non-agricultural or horticultural use to be passed to the vendor.

The land is Grade 2 and 3, on Frilsham series soils and is currently subject to a contract-farming agreement.

There is one outbuilding, a 12.5×14.5m steel portal framed shed with corrugated cladding.

The land is on the market with Ceres Property at a guide price of £1.05m for the whole. It is also available in three lots.