After being immersed in the world of farming and farm machinery for decades, Meath man Neil McDermott has made a giant leap into the wellness industry.

Having bought the striking home and workplace of architect Michael Rice - who has been hailed as the 'godfather' of bioarchitecture - and his family in Deerpark, Mountrath, Co. Laois, McDermott is running the site as an holistic rejuvenation and wellness centre, guided by ancient Indian Ayurvedic principles.

'Arunachala' specialises in traditional Ayurvedic therapies, including retreats, yoga, massage therapies and wellness workshops.

The centre was set on 10ac and McDermott, who is a shareholder in a similar centre in India, added a further 20ac.

Farming background

Growing up on a vegetable farm which moved into the grain business gave McDermott a keen interest in farming.

He started off with 26ac of his own, going on to achieve exponential growth.

He said: "I borrowed from AIB and ACC to buy extra land until I had 75ac at Cabin Hill, Ratoath, Co. Meath.

"I had 400ac rented for tillage in 1975 which was a great year for tillage farming, great weather and prices. I was aiming to make £10/ac but made £36/ac. Wheat was £150/t that year.

"Then in the same year I bought a residential farm of 227ac in Edenderry, Co. Offaly, for £145,000 by promising the bank to sell the 75ac in Co Meath, which I did.

"I was 25 and my first cousin, Ray Coyle RIP, of Tayto fame, who was a year younger, gave me great example and we co-operated with machines and money."

McDermott said he continued to farm tillage and vegetables in the Edenderry area.

"I had 200ac of vegetables in 1976-78 and about 400ac of grain on rented land from Enfield in Meath to Rhode in Offaly," he recalled.

"A neighbour farmer in Edenderry offered to buy 60ac of the Edenderry land for £1800/ac, treble what I gave for it in 1975. I went to the bank manager and told him that if I sold, I would be debt-free and have surplus cash.

"So what did I do, I bought 33 adjoining acres via debt and the rest is history," Neil said.

The Meath man recalled how interest rates went to 21% plus 6% of a surcharge, "resulting in a spiralling out-of-control bank account".

"I owed £600,000 - an impossible task at the time."

Farm machinery

Enter the farm machinery business.

"The only cash I could get was by selling machines I had used seasonally, for example: selling seeding machines when I was finished planting; hay machines when finished baling, etc.

"But the day of reckoning came. I had ignored my original bank and was using a current account in Tullamore.

McDermott found himself going to his original bank "to face the music".

"I offered to agree to sell the farm for whatever it made and that I would walk out a free man.

"The bank agreed and I rented an adjacent house and yard in which I began the machinery business," he said.

This move took McDermott into new territory.

He said: "It was such a change from the farming. One had to depend on customers walking in the door, and if they didn't, it was very difficult to keep going.

While visiting his bank in Tullamore, McDermott had noticed a 'for sale' sign on Cappincur Joinery which went into liquidation in the 1980s.

!The sign fell down and I plucked up courage to call the auctioneer to ask the price," McDermott said.

"His reply was to make an offer. That I did; a rather bargain basement offer with credit built by the liquidator.

"The farm machinery business thrived. My brother Paddy joined the business and he looked after the workshop and sales which he was very good at.

"I concentrated on buying mainly out of season when the English machinery dealers were closing their books and writing down the prices."

According to McDemott, the business was a success until one day, an acquaintance said to him: "You have no life answering that phone all day."

"I spontaneously decided to sell the lot by public auction with no reserve," he said.

"It was a very risky thing to do. Some items were sold at knock-down prices.

"I ended up with £600,000 that time so I went from owing £600,000 to plus £600,000 in the space of about 15 years." 

Ayurveda

Over the years, McDermott, who has travelled extensively, became interested in Indian spirituality and got involved in the School of Philosophy in Dublin which had a Sanskrit class.

He explalined: "I wanted to study the Sanskrit language in particular, as I had come across it with the Rosicrucians - those who study natural laws to achieve spiritual enlightenment and master their lives - as being the father of all languages.

"This is where I came across Ayurveda; 'Ayur'meaning life or change and 'veda' meaning knowledge of. It's the basic knowledge of our body and mind types.

"I've been fascinated with it ever since but don't study it as such, just observing. I discovered study wasn't for me," he recalled.

Neil is continuing to farm, with 1600ac in Estonia, all combinable crops.

"We had an operation in Ukraine but that has been exited recently."

Public response

The response to the centre has been very positive, according to McDermott.

"Ayurveda helps and supports a healthy balance through diet, meditation and lifestyle adaptations.

"People are now far more aware of the food they eat. They are also more aware of the value of exercise and meditation," McDermott said, who grows his own food.

He employs an Ayurvedic specialist from India, three therapists , a gardener and other part-time staff.

It's a different life to farming but he still is drawn by the lure of the land.

"Once a farmer, always a farmer," he said.