what county is there the best land

kerryjack

My ould place is ready to float away into the Atlantic, horrible year ,IF i won the loto i would love to buy a decent spreed somewhere ,but where is the good land

bogman_bass

east meath/north dublin I'd say

bob charles

bogman_bass wrote: »

east meath/north dublin I'd say

was always disappointed in Meath land, when we used to be working our little haggarts we always heard of the great land in meath.

keep going

must admit wouldnt mind moving to wexford-good land and good climate

red bull

Good land in most counties, rainfall biggest problem.

Qualitymark

According to Cromwell, Tipperary was "land worth dying for".

Black Smoke

Qualitymark wrote: »

According to Cromwell, Tipperary was "land worth dying for".

And of the Burren, he said " not a tree to hang a man, nor soil enough to bury a man, nor water enough to drown a man"! If he could see today, the mighty weanlings being produced there!

vanderbadger

Black Smoke wrote: »

And of the Burren, he said " not a tree to hang a man, nor soil enough to bury a man, nor water enough to drown a man"! If he could see today, the mighty weanlings being produced there!

he also said to hell or to Connaught
he was a great man for the quotes

Tipp Man

Qualitymark wrote: »

According to Cromwell, Tipperary was "land worth dying for".

Cromwell knew his stuff!!

yellow50HX

Cork of course! sure havent we the best of everything....ha ha ha

that said we had an awful summer down here. it rained nearly every day from the start of april to the 1st week in september. think we got 3 dry days in a row once in that time around mid june, enough to get the silage in (just about).

milkprofit

Where did Cromwell Farm

Bizzum

milkprofit wrote: »

Where did Cromwell Farm

Not sure where he farmed but the fuc*er used Drogheda as an abbatoir.

Qualitymark

milkprofit wrote: »

Where did Cromwell Farm

Cromwell himself was a fen man, from Huntingdon, not far from London. His grandfather was a millionaire landowner; his pa inherited enough land for a very comfortable living. Married well, into the merchant classes, who networked his career upwards. Had an economic and psychological crash, moved to St Ives in Cornwall and took up smallholding (chooks & pigs & veggies) and religious mania. Inherited and was again on the up, and got a nixer as a Protestant church taxman (collecting tithes). Took up politics, then, during the English Civil War, mass murder, and from then on he was set. His campaign in Ireland seems to have been kind of like the Injun-huntin' of the American settlers: breaking the royalist-old-English-Catholic-Gaelic alliance and murdering the peasantry, commissioning the Petty Survey of Catholic land ownership then stealing confiscating that land and passing it on to his own boys or selling it. Probably did nicely out of all this.

nexlar

I think rainfall is the biggest problem there.

vincenzolorenzo

Qualitymark wrote: »

Cromwell himself was a fen man, from Huntingdon, not far from London. His grandfather was a millionaire landowner; his pa inherited enough land for a very comfortable living. Married well, into the merchant classes, who networked his career upwards. Had an economic and psychological crash, moved to St Ives in Cornwall and took up smallholding (chooks & pigs & veggies) and religious mania. Inherited and was again on the up, and got a nixer as a Protestant church taxman (collecting tithes). Took up politics, then, during the English Civil War, mass murder, and from then on he was set. His campaign in Ireland seems to have been kind of like the Injun-huntin' of the American settlers: breaking the royalist-old-English-Catholic-Gaelic alliance and murdering the peasantry, commissioning the Petty Survey of Catholic land ownership then stealing confiscating that land and passing it on to his own boys or selling it. Probably did nicely out of all this.

Good description!

Sure wasn't he a great lad altogether! :rolleyes:

mitosis

The Golden Vale - South Tipp

kboc

cooley pennisula

PatQfarmer

mitosis wrote: »

The Golden Vale - South Tipp

Without a doubt. As my father regularly tells me "The best land in Ireland"
But then, we are local auctioneers...:D

redzerologhlen

Black Smoke wrote: »

And of the Burren, he said " not a tree to hang a man, nor soil enough to bury a man, nor water enough to drown a man"! If he could see today, the mighty weanlings being produced there!

He actually remarked that the cows were very fat after saying that about the burren!!

Manoffeeling

Qualitymark wrote: »

Cromwell himself was a fen man, from Huntingdon, not far from London. His grandfather was a millionaire landowner; his pa inherited enough land for a very comfortable living. Married well, into the merchant classes, who networked his career upwards. Had an economic and psychological crash, moved to St Ives in Cornwall and took up smallholding (chooks & pigs & veggies) and religious mania. Inherited and was again on the up, and got a nixer as a Protestant church taxman (collecting tithes). Took up politics, then, during the English Civil War, mass murder, and from then on he was set. His campaign in Ireland seems to have been kind of like the Injun-huntin' of the American settlers: breaking the royalist-old-English-Catholic-Gaelic alliance and murdering the peasantry, commissioning the Petty Survey of Catholic land ownership then stealing confiscating that land and passing it on to his own boys or selling it. Probably did nicely out of all this.

He can also be described as the father of republicanism.

tabby aspreme

The best land in the country is in the triangle between Athy Carlow and Castledermot in the middle of which is Kilkea Castle which was a residence of the Duke of Leinster and he could choose.
I reckon Mr Cromwell had an input into a lot of the current land ownership in that area mostly very large farms 300 to 800 acres , flat fertile and free draining, and all well farmed

Manoffeeling

tabby aspreme wrote: »

The best land in the country is in the triangle between Athy Carlow and Castledermot in the middle of which is Kilkea Castle which was a residence of the Duke of Leinster and he could choose.
I reckon Mr Cromwell had an input into a lot of the current land ownership in that area mostly very large farms 300 to 800 acres , flat fertile and free draining, and all well farmed

The Cosbys in stradbally, of electric picnic fame, got their land because one of their ancestors fought along side Oliver.

keep going

Qualitymark wrote: »

Cromwell himself was a fen man, from Huntingdon, not far from London. His grandfather was a millionaire landowner; his pa inherited enough land for a very comfortable living. Married well, into the merchant classes, who networked his career upwards. Had an economic and psychological crash, moved to St Ives in Cornwall and took up smallholding (chooks & pigs & veggies) and religious mania. Inherited and was again on the up, and got a nixer as a Protestant church taxman (collecting tithes). Took up politics, then, during the English Civil War, mass murder, and from then on he was set. His campaign in Ireland seems to have been kind of like the Injun-huntin' of the American settlers: breaking the royalist-old-English-Catholic-Gaelic alliance and murdering the peasantry, commissioning the Petty Survey of Catholic land ownership then stealing confiscating that land and passing it on to his own boys or selling it. Probably did nicely out of all this.

kind of like a county counciller so;)

Timmaay

Would you not rate the quality of the land over the location much more so? Ie soil type/free draining/hilly etc? Wicklow has a hell of a lot of mountains, and alot of the farmland up on higher ground would be poor enough quality, however I'm lucky enough that our farm is at sealevel, right beside the sea so less frost etc, and relatively free draining.

Obviously there is a big variation east to west, however if I was buying a farm now anywhere in Ireland I wouldn't let the location, other than obvious disadvantaged western areas put me off!

Birdnuts

Taking climate,soil quality, topography,shelter etc. into account, I would go for the Newcastle area of South Co.Dublin including lands extending along the M7 as far as Kill Village.

iverjohnston

vincenzolorenzo wrote: »

Good description!

Sure wasn't he a great lad altogether! :rolleyes:

If only we pesky Irish hadn't been so fond of the British royalfFamily at the time, and had rowed in with his republican ideals, we would have been set!

If I won the Lotto(or the Euro millions) I would be heading down Wexford way. If I didn't get sidetracked by all those 2000 acre estates you see in the property porn pages in the Farmers Weekly!

Iver in Cavan

Juniorhurler

PatQfarmer wrote: »

Without a doubt. As my father regularly tells me "The best land in Ireland"
But then, we are local auctioneers...:D

Get out of here so, sure ye're worse than zetor dealers:D;)

Juniorhurler

iverjohnston wrote: »

If only we pesky Irish hadn't been so fond of the British royalfFamily at the time, and had rowed in with his republican ideals, we would have been set!

If I won the Lotto(or the Euro millions) I would be heading down Wexford way. If I didn't get sidetracked by all those 2000 acre estates you see in the property porn pages in the Farmers Weekly!

Iver in Cavan

We have some great land alright, but as you travel through north Wexford the whole eastern side of the M11 is what we call macamore land and has absolutely no soakage whatsoever. We have an out farm on this and let me tell you it is trying ground on a year like this. Grows grass like mad though of a good year.

The home block then is level free draining soil and is the type that you are thinking of.

All counties have good land and all counties have bad land.

Grecco

I reckon west of Ireland has the worst land but the best farmers. We are able to farm the wet land, those farmers in the golden vale would have a clue here!

pakalasa

...and they'd be in bed and hooked up to a drip after this year.:D

stanflt

if i was spending in the morning it would be the north east or wexford

Bizzum

Some great land in Meath around Slane, Navan and Kells. Some ordinary stuff too!
Given chemical fertilizers, reseeding and good grassland management I see some "middling" places producing the goods.

greecy_joe

Bizzum wrote: »

Some great land in Meath around Slane, Navan and Kells. Some ordinary stuff too!
Given chemical fertilizers, reseeding and good grassland management I see some "middling" places producing the goods.

for growing potatoes or cereals , its hard to beat meath , but the land in meath is not paritculary free draining , its heavy enough but very fertile , the likes of cork is much better for milking cows

id perfer louth , lower rainfall ( third lowest after dublin and kildare ) and the land is more sandy than in meath , louth has the highest percentage of land fit for growing barley of ay county ( according to a survey which was done some years ago ) , 87% , leitrim had the lowest

their are of course good pockets in almost every county

bealaha

Definitely has to be east cork, were blessed down here with good free draining land, although the downside is we can suffer bad in times of drought!!! Great area for milking cows and cereal growing.

greecy_joe

bealaha wrote: »

Definitely has to be east cork, were blessed down here with good free draining land, although the downside is we can suffer bad in times of drought!!! Great area for milking cows and cereal growing.

yeah that drought in 1995 was a nightmare alright

MfMan

greecy_joe wrote: »

yeah that drought in 1995 was a nightmare alright

What's a drought?

greecy_joe

MfMan wrote: »

What's a drought?

been so long since i witnessed one , i cant honestly remember

you know how that awfull term the " most vulnerable " is attached to everyone at this stage in this country

one group for whoom it will never apply is those farmers with the kind of land who refer to the hardships of drought

awaywithyou

having spent a number of years teaching in meath i would have to say the land there is special, unbelievable.... christ id love to buy up a strake of that county...

trim to dublin road land unreal

trim to navan road land just unreal

either side of M3 or N3.. unreal!!

over around Stanflt country... unreal!!!

Meath has the best land in the country and over around ballivor has the best bog in the country!

rs8

another vote for meath

13spanner

Heart says the Burren, head says anywhere but :rolleyes:

bob charles

13spanner wrote: »

Heart says the Burren, head says anywhere but :rolleyes:

honestly for fattening land give me those rich reclaimed fields that you see dotted around parts of the burren, As I said Meath land was always a let down for me. East Cork, unreal grass land, parts of kerry have supreme land.

Remember being at some sort of a maize meeting years ago in Cork. The cork lads were saying how they were ploughing a foot deep and they asked how deep we were ploughing, the reply was we let the plough glide along the top of the rocks, usually about 2 - 6 inches. They couldnt understand what we were on about

Conflats

I suppose I may fly the flag for Carlow great tillage ground and only the best land can grow crops but anywhere around south kildare, wexford direction is good land, north kildare meath is heavy land and in a year like this is paying for it.

grazeaway

bob charles wrote: »

honestly for fattening land give me those rich reclaimed fields that you see dotted around parts of the burren, As I said Meath land was always a let down for me. East Cork, unreal grass land, parts of kerry have supreme land.

Remember being at some sort of a maize meeting years ago in Cork. The cork lads were saying how they were ploughing a foot deep and they asked how deep we were ploughing, the reply was we let the plough glide along the top of the rocks, usually about 2 - 6 inches. They couldnt understand what we were on about

Yeah, the ol lad would always tell me to drop the plough when i was a young fella, plenty of deep ploughing down these parts. That said we have some poor-ish land down these parts too as there are soem fairly steep glens.

That said you can pretty much grow anything (within reason) around here. I've driven the whole country by now and i'd say its proably the place with the most mixed farming in the country (along with waterford, south tipp and kilkenny. Around our place you can see big milking herds, beef, sucklers, sheep, forestry, maize, wheat, oats, barley, beans, peas, spuds, beet, rape, linseed. when the food factory was open in midleton you also had lettuce, cabbage, cauiliflower, carrots, parsnips and turnips. there used to be more veg growers around here too but most are now after changing. I think there used to be a vinyard just outside midleton at one stage too.

A lad from west cork moved up our way years ago and would always say that if you moved east you's never move back. The land around midleton in east cork is used to provide the barly for irish ditillers and bushmills, gunniess have a farm outside ballinacurra and this is also where a lot of the barly for murphys, heinken and bemish comes from too.

Basicly anywhere where there is plenty of good tillage land. a lot of these areas were where cromwell and his buddies carved up the countryside for themselves as a paymet for thier backing in the english civil war. they couldnt really get much more land in england and knew that invading france or flanders would be too much of a struggle. I have always wondered what the country have turned out like if he hadnt invaded

Western Pomise

Good land in every county...even Leitrim,from plenty of experience of renting land/ listening to farming people from around the country etc...best land in north co Dublin although longest growing season in west Cork,. Production wise Farmers west of the Shannon make most of hand/land God dealt them.

Tipp Man

Western Pomise wrote: »

. Production wise Farmers west of the Shannon make most of hand/land God dealt them.

That is a massive statement to make and i'm not too sure there is anything to back it up

JupiterKid

I would have thought that the East of the country generally has the better quality land, with land being poorer in quality as you move West.

Places like Louth, North County Dublin, Meath, Kildare, Carlow, Kilkenny, Wexford, Tipperary and East Cork all have very good quality land for grass growing and tillage.

I was under the impression that high quality farming land was that which was fertile, drained well, was relatively light to work and supported a range of tillage crops.

greecy_joe

the land along the N2 from dublin to ashbourne in county meath is remarkabley good , north dublin land certainly looks like some of the best land in the country

overall though , land in ireland is not as fantastic as many people think , i spent a week in argentina in 2004 , a yard of top soil is not unheard of , uruguay next door is the same , never been to the ukraine but its supposed to be the best in the entire world , parts of england , the usa , new zealand and parts of africa like zimbabwe also have land which is superior to anything in this country

what we have going for us that they often dont is plentifull supply of rain , i once had a kiwi at my house and he couldnt get over when i told him one of the biggest challenges facing farmers in ireland was too much rain , he began scratching his head and didnt stop for ten minutes

pakalasa

Ya, great land from Dublin to Ashbourne. Some great land around London too, up around Stansted. All around Paris is good too.
I was over in California a few years back. Saw them drawing in loads of topsoil to put over sand plains near the cost. Fruit & Veg growing area. Making land, is it were.:rolleyes:

ford2600

Not from Cork but know it well enough.

If you start in Killeagh and head west towards city and onto Bandon, the land you pass to either side of you and in particular to coast, including areas such as Garyvoe, Cloyne, Inch, Whitegate, Minane bridge, Kinsale area. Some beautiful undulating land.

Golden Vale obviously.

Nice stretch in west waterford around Blackwater valley, and the old Blackwater valley(when the river used to flow east) due east of Cappaquin towards Dungarvan

pakalasa wrote: »

Ya, great land from Dublin to Ashbourne. Some great land around London too, up around Stansted. All around Paris is good too.
I was over in California a few years back. Saw them drawing in loads of topsoil to put over sand plains near the cost. Fruit & Veg growing area. Making land, is it were.:rolleyes:

grazeaway

greecy_joe wrote: »

the land along the N2 from dublin to ashbourne in county meath is remarkabley good , north dublin land certainly looks like some of the best land in the country

overall though , land in ireland is not as fantastic as many people think , i spent a week in argentina in 2004 , a yard of top soil is not unheard of , uruguay next door is the same , never been to the ukraine but its supposed to be the best in the entire world , parts of england , the usa , new zealand and parts of africa like zimbabwe also have land which is superior to anything in this country

what we have going for us that they often dont is plentifull supply of rain , i once had a kiwi at my house and he couldnt get over when i told him one of the biggest challenges facing farmers in ireland was too much rain , he began scratching his head and didnt stop for ten minutes

a lad in work is from Germany and is from a farming background so we were discussing this very topic a few months back. Back in the early 90's a German company did a survey of the land in the EU and in the emerging eastern country's for investors, and this lads brother was involved.

believe it or not but some of the best land in Europe is in Ireland its just that compared to the rest of Europe its in small patches. He asked his brother what they thought of Ireland and he said that there were 4 main areas that would considered to be in the top ranked land in Europe, north from the Wicklow mountains to the border area (Dublin, Kildare, Meath and Louth), the south east (wexford, Carlow and Kilkenny), the eastern half of cork and into Waterford and the suir valley, and the areas south of Belfast and along the Bann valley in the north. He also said that Ireland had a number of very fertile valleys and other areas dotted all over the county that these were prime land but when you take into the sizes compared to the rest of the country they were negligible. As most of the good land in Ireland is concentrated in the south and east of the country good land in areas outside of this was valued at a premium.

We have good land here but because of our climate we wouldn't be recognised for growing lots of wheat and maize, but we have a mild climate and have plenty of water. A key thing in having good land is having the climate to utilise it.

Yeah the best land in the world is considered to be on the northern European plain (from Bordeaux in France, through northern France, southern England, Belgium Holland Germany, Denmark, southern Sweden and through Poland and the Baltic to Finland Russia and the Ukraine, the central states in the the US and Canada, central California, Argentina, Uruguay and southern brazil, the Canterbury plains in NZ as well as parts of south Africa and Zimbabwe and the African high plains.

we may have good land in ireland but not enough compared to these places

grazeaway

ford2600 wrote: »

Not from Cork but know it well enough.

If you start in Killeagh and head west towards city and onto Bandon, the land you pass to either side of you and in particular to coast, including areas such as Garyvoe, Cloyne, Inch, Whitegate, Minane bridge, Kinsale area. Some beautiful undulating land.

Golden Vale obviously.

Nice stretch in west waterford around Blackwater valley, and the old Blackwater valley(when the river used to flow east) due east of Cappaquin towards Dungarvan

your right there