Indications of financial distress surfaced at Carhue following the Great Famine (Ireland). By February 1850, the farm interest of George Foott had been surrendered and the stock, crops, implements and furniture put up for auction without reserve. Foott had previously secured a loan for £100 in 1848 under the Land Improvement Act. The house, offices and demesne of Carhue were offered for lease in March 1850, comprising 290 acres of pasture and tillage, with 50 acres suitable for oats or barley, having been cropped with turnips and carrots that season, and the lands described as highly cultivated and employed for dairy farming for years. That part held by Foott, comprising 140 acres, was available for lease separately. On 9 April 1850 a large quantity of oak, ash, elm, beech and sycamore was put up for auction without reserve at Carhue. By 29 June 1852 an unreserved auction was scheduled for the sale of Carhue demesne including fourteen acres of wheat, nine acres of barley, ten acres of oats, sixty acres of meadow, ten acres of potatoes, some turnips and carrots, a quantity of hay and straw, livestock, farm implements, and household furniture.