Mark Zuckerberg Buys a Castle While the Rest of Us Build Sandcastles Once a Year
August 21, 2026 - 11:45 am
Strancally Castle, perched above a bend in the Blackwater in Co Waterford, Ireland, is a grand structure with a rich history dating back to the 1830s. Built for John Keily, MP for Clonmel, by James and George Richard Pain, it stands on a site once fortified by Raymond le Gros. Local legends tell of a past trapdoor leading to a flooded cave, used by the castle's occupants to lure landowners to a banquet.
The main house spans approximately 16,000 square feet, and at its peak, the estate encompassed 5,000 acres. Today, it stands on 440 acres. The architectural grandeur includes a kitchen connected to the dining room by a walk that, according to one account, takes about four and a half minutes to complete briskly.
On August 20, The Irish Times reported that tech billionaire Mark Zuckerberg had purchased the castle, though the price remained undisclosed. A Meta spokesperson confirmed that Zuckerberg and his family were looking forward to spending time in Ireland, where Meta has its international headquarters.
However, just two days earlier, a significant trial against Meta (formerly Facebook) began in a federal courtroom in Oakland, California. The trial, involving 29 state attorneys general, alleges that Meta designed Facebook and Instagram to be addictive for minors through various means, including algorithmic ranking, infinite scrolling, and notifications. The states accuse Meta of knowingly engaging in these practices, publicly denying it, and violating the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act by collecting data from children under 13.
California's deputy attorney general, Megan O'Neill, summarized Meta's alleged business model as "hook, hold, harvest, hide," citing internal documents and a Meta study titled "Long Term Retention: The Young Ones Are The Best Ones."
Arturo Bejar, a former Meta engineering director, testified that the company intentionally designed break reminders to fail and operated a "don't ask, don't tell" policy regarding teen well-being on Instagram.