{"id":599928,"date":"2026-08-21T06:48:14","date_gmt":"2026-08-21T06:48:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/599928\/"},"modified":"2026-08-21T06:48:14","modified_gmt":"2026-08-21T06:48:14","slug":"original-home-of-mark-zuckerbergs-irish-castle-is-immortalised-in-verse-as-the-site-of-gruesome-deeds-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/599928\/","title":{"rendered":"Original home of Mark Zuckerberg\u2019s Irish castle is immortalised in verse as the site of gruesome deeds \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The new owners of Strancally Castle<\/a> will likely have been attracted to the Co Waterford<\/a> Gothic property by the chance of a game of croquet on its lawns, a dip in its swimming pool, or a \u201cSilicon Valley walk-and-talk\u201d in its extensive grounds. Omitted from the list of features, thankfully, is the \u201cgruesome\u201d past of the original castle which is located nearby.<\/p>\n

The detached three-bay, three-storey-over-basement castle acquired by Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, was built in the Gothic style around 1830, for John Keily (or Kiely), a former Tory MP. <\/p>\n

It was designed by renowned brothers James and George Richard Pain, who also planned Dromoland Castle in Co Clare<\/a>, Cork County Gaol and Blackrock Castle in Cork<\/a>. Strancally Castle and its estate are situated about 4.5km from the site of the original castle which had been founded in the 12th century by Raymond le Gros, a Norman invader and cousin of Richard de Clare, or Strongbow as he is more commonly known. <\/p>\n

Strancally Castle is described in Brian De Breffney and Rosemary Ffolliott\u2019s book The Houses of Ireland as \u201cstrong and forbidding\u201d. The authors added that had \u201cfine features\u201d inside however, including \u201ca delicate stair in light oak, skilfully cantilevered\u201d, and \u201ca handsome black Kilkenny marble mantelpiece in the form of a crenellated castle\u201d in the dining room.<\/p>\n

The castle is \u201cvery large\u201d and the book notes that the owner, Keily, was \u201cdelighted that it necessitated four and a half minutes fast walking to reach his dining room from the basement kitchen\u201d. That might also delight new owner Mark Zuckerberg<\/a>, who is known for \u201cSilicon Valley walk-and-talks\u201d in lieu of traditional sitdown meetings.<\/p>\n

He might be less thrilled, however, with the \u201cgruesome history\u201d attached to the original Strancally Castle. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Mark Zuckerberg buys Strancally Castle in Co WaterfordOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

In Homes and Haunts of the Most Eminent British Poets, the author, William Howitt, describes the use of a \u201cmurderous device\u201d at the castle, carved into a rock over the river: \u201cThe unwary, when decoyed within the castle, were tied hand and foot, and hung down the murder-hole \u2013 the rapid river hurried by, and soon carried away their gasping shrieks, and the dead told no tales.\u201d<\/p>\n

In about 1855, an Anglo-Irish family, the Whitelocke-Lloyds, acquired the current iteration of Strancally Castle and its then 5,000-acre estate for approximately \u00a310,000 after the Keilys ran into financial difficulties. William Whitelocke-Lloyd went to Oxford University with Oscar Wilde, but dropped out after failing his exams and joined the British army, where he fought in the Anglo-Zulu war of 1879.<\/p>\n

The castle and its lands were subsequently acquired by the Irish Land Commission in the mid-20th century, selling off much of the land in smaller chunks.<\/p>\n

It again came to the market in 1992, seeking offers in the range of \u00a3800,000 to \u00a31 million. One of its features, as noted in the property pages of The Irish Times, was \u201coil-fired central heating virtually throughout\u201d.<\/p>\n

The most recent owners undertook a renovation of the castle, which probably helped catch the eye of the Meta<\/a> CEO.<\/p>\n

Michael Alen-Buckley, a cofounder of London-headquartered private investment firm RAB Capital, and his wife Giancarla \u2013 a daughter of the late Charles Forte and sister of Rocco Forte of the Rocco Forte Hotels group \u2013 acquired Strancally Castle 25 years ago.<\/p>\n

A report in The Irish Times from 2001 suggests that the British hedge fund manager paid over \u00a32 million (\u20ac2.54m) for the property, including 55 acres of land.<\/p>\n

At the time, the property comprised 11 main bedrooms, five of which were en suite, with four further bedroom suites in the tower. It also offered \u201ca number\u201d of large reception rooms, including an inner hall, dining room, drawing room and library. <\/p>\n

It subsequently underwent several renovations, with planning documents indicating that an indoor swimming pool had been added. <\/p>\n

The castle will also offer Zuckerberg, his wife Priscilla Chan and their three children the chance to play a cultural role in area; Alen-Buckley is president of the Blackwater Valley Opera Festival, and Strancally Castle has been used as a venue for the festival.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The new owners of Strancally Castle will likely have been attracted to the Co Waterford Gothic property by…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":598946,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[823,42,2597,1226,43,40,38,41,39,6513],"class_list":["post-599928","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-facebook","tag-headlines","tag-mark-zuckerberg","tag-meta","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-waterford"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/599928","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=599928"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/599928\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/598946"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=599928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=599928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=599928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}