Fire fighters in Tipperary took two almost days to extinguish a fire in a large Coolmore-owned hay shed used for composting after its contents erupted in a blaze for the second time this year.
The shed is located on Castleblake Farm, in Rosegreen, 2km from the world-famous Ballydoyle training centre where champion trainer Aidan O’Brien is based.
Fire brigades from Cashel and Cahir were mobilised to respond to the fire at 8.17pm on Wednesday, September 2nd. The intense fire was brought fully under control on Friday morning.
Video shot at the scene shows firefighters dousing an external wall of a large hay shed with water as a large fire can be seen engulfing the hay inside the composting facility.
Martin Moore, assistant chief fire officer in Tipperary Fire and Rescue Service, said he attended the fire with two fire appliances and a water tanker.
“The fire was brought under control this morning, September 4th, and scene handed back over to owners,” he said. “I can further confirm the fire was in the same premises at Castleblake, Rosegreen attended by the Tipperary Fire and Rescue Service in February 2026.”
Moore said the cause of the fire and the previous one in the same facility were not yet known and he could not speculate. The process of composting can cause the build up of intense heat in organic waste.
One local said there was much surprise that a second fire had broken out at the Coolmore facility so soon after the last one.
On February 9th, the contents of the same large hay shed erupted in a blaze that took three fire engines 17 hours to douse. Coolmore said afterwards that no one was hurt but the steel and concrete shed was being assessed for damage.
A Coolmore spokesman said the fire was caused after the composting materials overheated as part of the natural composting process.
“As the shed is substantially of concrete and steel construction there is little by way of incremental damage and a decision was made in collaboration with the fire service to allow the fire to burn-out naturally,” he said.
“Compost from horse bedding tends to be much dryer and more liable to overheating and the farm is assessing options to mitigate that risk.”
The Castleblake property was formerly used as an animal rendering site that closed in 2003. Coolmore and Ballydoyle had objected to plans to turn the site into a €100m bioenergy plant, on the grounds that its emissions would force Ballydoyle to close.
The site was put up for sale after planning permission for the energy plant was refused. Coolmore bought the site in 2010.
The John Magnier-run horse stud and farm business has developed an extensive agriculture storage facility on the site. It has received planning permission for a new 15-metre high 1,690sqm shed, which planners said would take the recently approved total floor area of the facility to 3,716sqm.