Mark Zuckerberg is a castle guy now.
The Irish Times reported that the Meta CEO and his spouse, Priscilla Chan, have purchased Strancally Castle in Ireland’s County Waterford. The two quietly finished the transaction for the “Gothic-revival style house and its 440-acre estate on the banks of the river Blackwater” weeks ago, the Times wrote. They likely paid €20 million to €30 million (around $23.2 million to $34.7 million) for the 16,000sq ft residence.
As you’d expect, this is a place built for the tastes of bluebloods, but what you might not know is that it is non-metaphorically a House of Pain. According to the Times, the book The Houses of Ireland describes Strancally Castle as built in 1830 and “designed by the Pain brothers [James and George Richard] on a lavish scale; it took a brisk walk of 4½ minutes to reach the [dining room] from the kitchen.”
Based on that description, we can only desperately hope that this becomes a Saltburn situation.
Note that Zuckerberg’s stated reason for purchasing the property (in a statement to the Times) is “spending time in Ireland, where Meta maintains its international headquarters.” Meta is internationally headquartered in Ireland solely to maintain a “tax avoidance” scheme so shameless even Donald Trump’s IRS is taking shots at it in court.
Anyone living in the vicinity of a castle is probably used to toffs, though they should still brace for the worst. Zuckerberg is not just a notoriously bad neighbor, but being obscenely rich, a notoriously bad neighbor in many places.
After buying a 700-acre beachfront property on Kuaua’i, an island in Hawai’i, Zuckerberg sparked outrage among residents in 2017 by suing kama‘āina families with ancestral land access rights to parts of the property. The lawsuit sought to force them to sell the plots to the highest bidder, who would be Zuckerberg.
In 2018 and 2019, San Antonio local outlet MySA reported that Zuckerberg bought roughly ten acres of land in Lake Tahoe and razed existing structures. A San Francisco Standard reporter visited the property and wrote an article full of bad vibes. Forbes reported a wave of rich guys and tech execs subsequently followed the Facebook CEO’s lead, building a wave of other estates worth tens of millions of dollars.
In the intervening years, Zuckerberg almost seems to have made it a hobby to screw with neighbors. The New York Times reported in 2025 that Zuckerberg had spent over $110 million to buy 11 separate neighboring homes in Palo Alto’s Crescent Park, subjecting area residents to “major construction and intense surveillance.” This included the construction of a Batcave-esque 7,000sq ft. basement complex, security goons that film and pester pedestrians on public sidewalks, and cameras that cover approaches from other properties.
Zuckerberg also reportedly hosted loud work events and private parties that clogged the streets with catering and supply trucks for days. The Times reported his construction crews also continually dinged neighbors’ vehicles, resulting in flat tires and missing mirrors.
One line from the Times piece is “Staff members are reimbursed for ride shares to encourage them not to park their own cars in the neighborhood,” which sort of tells you what you need to know.
The Irish Times wrote that Zuckerberg’s new castle is nearby Ballynatray House, the residence of famed British billionaire and vacuum engineer James Dyson. So, on the bright side, there’s at least a possibility of one screaming billionaire telling another where they can suck it.
