00:00The Facebook founder and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has a new home in Ireland.
00:06Its name is Strandcally Castle and it can be found on the banks of the River Blackwater in County Waterford.
00:14This Gothic Revival mansion was designed by the famous Payne Brothers for John Kiley,
00:20a local landlord, former Tory MP for Tlanmel and High Sheriff of County Waterford.
00:27The house was complete in 1830 and its scale was immense.
00:33According to records, it took a brisk four and a half minute walk just to get from the kitchen to
00:40the dining room.
00:41Within the grounds there was a folly, a Chinese pagoda and an aviary.
00:46The folly, which is known as Strandcally Tower, was built in 1826 and can still be seen on the riverbank.
00:54It's a mock medieval structure and it served as a fishing lodge.
01:00Interestingly, in later years, it actually served as a police station to prevent smuggling along the river.
01:07There is some dark lore associated with Strandcally Castle.
01:11Originally, there was a medieval castle here, constructed by the Norman Raymond Le Gros in 1172.
01:18In the 16th century, during the Desmond Rebellions, the Spanish seized the castle, using it as a treacherous base for
01:27river piracy.
01:29According to local folklore, they would invite wealthy local landowners to lavish banquets.
01:35However, when the feast would end, unsuspecting guests were dropped through a secret rock-cut trapdoor known as the Murder
01:44Hole.
01:44They fell directly into a flooded subterranean cave system that emptied into the rushing river below.
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