An entire Kildare village once owned by the owner of Ryanair has been put on the market for €20 million. 

Lyons, which is located close to Celbridge, dates back to the 19th century and its fortunes have undergone a number of ups and downs. 

On Moncrieff, local man and travel expert Eoghan Corry said Lyons is a wonderful place to visit. 

“There's a beautiful hill there, a house that was built in the early 1800s with the largest artificial lake in Ireland, we were told,” he described. 

“It was all part of the same estate until the quite recent times. 

“The village is actually a village; it was a thriving place - built in the 1820s because the canal was the main artery of commerce across the country until the railways were built.” 

A place of luxury

In the 20th century, with shipping along the canal in decline, the village fortunes’ changed. 

It was only in the 1990s, when the estate was bought by Ryanair boss Tony Ryan that things began to change once again for Lyons. 

Now it is a popular wedding venue and Mr Corry described it as a “really niche, very high end” place. 

“It's a hotel and there's two tremendous culinary ventures, very, very ambitious culinary ventures to get a good high-end restaurant going there,” he said. 

“Jordan Bailey, quite an achievement, in 2019, took over and he got, at his first go, he got a two Michelin star restaurant there.” 

Whoever buys it, Mr Corry cautioned it will require a lot of money and energy to sustain as a thriving business. 

“I do think that somebody is reading the market saying, ‘It'll be some entrepreneur, a sort of a lifestyle thing’,” he said. 

“But like the very big, beautiful hotels that we have around the country, Ballyfin, they're really not the place people come to make a quick few bob for themselves. 

“It becomes a bit of a labour of love, which it was for Tony Ryan.”

Main image: Lyons, Kildare. Picture by: Alamy.com.