Mark Zuckerberg Buys 440-Acre Irish Castle Estate For Up To ₹335 Crore

Meta founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, have purchased Strancally Castle, a 19th-century Gothic Revival estate in County Waterford, Ireland, that spans approximately 440 acres. The off-market deal was first reported by the Irish Times, which estimated the price at between EUR 20 million and EUR 30 million (roughly Rs. 335 crore), though the exact figure has not been disclosed.

A spokesperson for Zuckerberg said the family plans to use the property as a base during trips to Ireland, where Meta operates its international headquarters. The company's Dublin office is located roughly 150 miles from the castle, and Meta also runs a Reality Labs facility in Cork and a data centre in Clonee, County Meath, employing about 1,500 people across its Irish operations.

History of the estate

Strancally Castle was built around 1830 for John Keily, a former Conservative MP, and was designed by architects James and George Richard Pain. The three-storey property overlooks the River Blackwater and reportedly measures around 16,000 square feet. According to the book "The Houses of Ireland," the dining room and kitchen are separated by what was once described as a four-and-a-half-minute walk, reflecting the scale of the original design.

The estate was previously owned by Michael Alen-Buckley, co-founder of London-based investment firm RAB Capital, and his wife, Giancarla, who is connected to the family behind the Rocco Forte Hotels group. The couple had renovated the property after acquiring it in the early 2000s and said in a statement that they were grateful for the chance to restore Strancally Castle over their 25 years there, and expressed confidence that the new owners would continue that stewardship.

Part of a wider pattern among tech billionaires

The purchase adds to a string of high-profile acquisitions of Irish estates by prominent business figures. Entrepreneur James Dyson bought Ballynatray House, also in the Blackwater valley, in 2024, while Stripe co-founder John Collison acquired the Abbey Leix estate in County Laois in 2021. Zuckerberg had reportedly been looking to invest in Ireland for some time; last year, businessman John Malone said he had turned down an approach from Zuckerberg to buy his own County Kildare estate, Castlemartin.

Growing interest from international buyers

Industry observers say Ireland continues to draw overseas buyers to its prime country house and estate market, with castles forming a particularly sought-after segment due to their rarity and historical significance. Josh Pim, associate director at Savills Ireland, said such properties offer buyers the chance to own landmark estates that cannot be replicated, and noted that high-profile transactions of this kind reflect the market's growing international reach, even as it remains too early to call it a broader trend among Silicon Valley buyers.