Mark Zuckerberg made offer to buy historic Kildare estate

BILLIONAIRE John Malone has revealed that he turned down an offer for one of his Irish estates from Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook.

It was reported that Mr Zuckerberg said: “I’ve heard it was one of the most beautiful places in Ireland,” to which Mr Malone said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal. “And I said, ‘Yeah, probably, but it ain’t for sale.” The estate in question is Castlemartin which is located in Kilcullen and was purchased by Mr Malone in 2015. The estate includes a major stud farm and cattle breeding operations, a restored medieval church and an icehouse.

Mr Malone, whose Liberty Media is the ultimate owner of Virgin Media, did not disclose how much he was offered for Castlemartin by Zuckerberg.

After the death of the estate’s previous owner Tony O'Reilly last year, The New York Times published a correction to its obituary of the Irish businessman, saying it had mis-stated the price that Malone had paid for Castlemartin which was “close to €28m, not €7.4m”.