Qualla: Castlemartin House and Estate

Castlemartin House and Estate: Introduction

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Lady Fanny Carter, Public domain. Mark Zuckerberg made an offer for Castlemartin. According to John Malone, the American billionaire who bought the estate from Tony O'Reilly's family in 2015 for around 28 million euro, he turned the Facebook founder down. The story sits on top of seven hundred years of stranger ones. Castlemartin is a riverside estate on the banks of the Liffey at Kilcullen in County Kildare - 750 acres of pasture, a restored 18th-century mansion with 50 rooms, a Charolais herd founded in 1976, a medieval church that was a ruin for centuries, and an icehouse. The Eustace family held the land from the 13th century. By the time the O'Reillys arrived in 1972, it had been through everyone from Cromwellians to a former SS commando.

Image: Lady Fanny Carter | Public domain

Castlemartin House and Estate: Eustaces, Cromwellians, and Sir Maurice

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Unknown author, Public domain. A branch of the Eustace family - one of the most prominent 'Old English' Norman families in Kildare - held Castlemartin from the 13th century, intermarrying with the Talbots of Malahide and the Plunketts of Dunsany. In 1591 the castle burned down, according to a contemporary acco...

Image: Unknown author | Public domain

Castlemartin House and Estate: The Skorzeny Years

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit DiggingSpace, CC BY-SA 4.0. By the mid-20th century Castlemartin had been declining for decades. In 1959, according to a 2018 Irish Times article, the estate was bought by Otto Skorzeny - the former Waffen-SS commando best known for leading the daring 1943 glider rescue of Mussolini from his mountain prison...

Image: DiggingSpace | CC BY-SA 4.0

Castlemartin House and Estate: The O'Reillys

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Robert Linsdell from St. Andrews, Canada, CC BY 2.0. At the point of sale in 1972, the conventional wisdom was that the house was probably only worth demolishing. Tony O'Reilly, then on his way to becoming one of Ireland's most prominent businessmen as head of the Independent News & Media group and chief executive of H J Heinz, spe...

Image: Robert Linsdell from St. Andrews, Canada | CC BY 2.0

Castlemartin House and Estate: The Malone Era

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Offalyred, Public domain. Financial pressures - O'Reilly's media empire collapsed in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis - meant Castlemartin went on the international market in late 2014. John Malone, the American Liberty Media chairman and one of the largest private landowners in the United States, bo...

Image: Offalyred | Public domain