Ireland

Simply Red duo to sell Donegal hunting estate

Mick Hucknall is selling the Co Donegal fishing and hunting estate he owns with fellow band member, Chris De Margary. Picture by Ian West, Press Association
Mick Hucknall is selling the Co Donegal fishing and hunting estate he owns with fellow band member, Chris De Margary. Picture by Ian West, Press Association Mick Hucknall is selling the Co Donegal fishing and hunting estate he owns with fellow band member, Chris De Margary. Picture by Ian West, Press Association

A Co Donegal country estate, owned by British rock stars Mick Hucknall and Chris De Margary of Simply Red, has been put up for sale for almost £2.3 million.

Glenmore Rivers estate on the River Finn in east Donegal boasts some of the richest fishing waters in Europe. Covering more than 24,000 acres, the huge estate is also popular among the super-rich as a hunting location.

The property was bought by Hucknall and his close friend, De Margary for €1.3 million (£1.1 million) in 2005. The British pop stars have always been avid fishing enthusiasts.

Running from the Blue Stack mountains into the River Foyle, the River Finn is famous among anglers as a salmon river. As well as using the estate themselves, the pop duo developed and ran the facility as a destination for fishing and hunting, building the Glenmore Lodge accommodation.

However, the pop stars placed the estate on the market this week through British firm Savills which specialises in luxury property.

In its brochure, Savills described the estate as providing “unrivalled woodcock and snipe shooting".

The estate agents said: “Close to Europe’s most westerly Atlantic coastline, amongst the peat bogs and mountain loughs of this pristine land, streams tumble through a myriad of waterfalls and rocky pools, joining to become one of Europe’s finest salmon fisheries, the River Finn".

It is understood Hucknall and De Margary are selling the property because they have been unable to use it as much as they would have liked. De Margary owns other property in Co Donegal.