Taking a jaunt down the Blackwater to see Ireland’s Millionaires’ Row

There must be something in the water of the Blackwater.

The river, which meanders 169km through Cork, Kerry, and Waterford, has become a hub for multi-millionaires snapping up posh Irish homes of late.

Inventor and businessman James Dyson splashed out about €32 million for Ballynatray House near the Cork-Waterford border in 2024, and now he has a new neighbour in Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg, who bought Strancally Castle nearby for a similar sum. Both have the Blackwater lapping alongside them.

All of this must be good for business for Tony Gallagher, who runs Blackwater Cruises based in Youghal Harbour from May to September.

“I’m going out on the Maeve Óg on the Blackwater at 11.am,” says Tony, who has been cruising the river for 26 years now. “I have a spare seat if you want to come aboard.”

Aye aye, cap’n!

“I can show you Dyson’s place if you wish,” says Tony, reading my mind. “He paid €32 million for it and has put another €20 million into it.

“Up river is Zuckerburg’s place,” adds Tony, who delights visitors to Youghal from near and far aboard his boat with amusing anecdotes and his great knowledge of history.

“I am going up river this afternoon, but it’s a chartered boat, so you’ll have to come another day to try and view Mark Zuckerburg’s acquisition of a 440-acre castle estate, Strancally Castle in Knockanore” says Tony.

Is there much hype about having the seventh richest person in the world, according to Forbes, with a net worth of around €162 billion, pitching up home here?

“Indeed, there is a lot of interest in the Castle,” says Tony. “I am practising saying the name ‘Zuckerburg’ morning, noon, and night!”

This morning, Tony is accompanied by his faithful companion and first mate, Scuba.

“She was abandoned in a building site and a Polish man found her,” says Tony. “When he returned to Poland, I took Scuba in and looked after her. She is my regular mate and crew member. We have our morning coffee together and we cruise the river together!”

Maeve Óg is moored and awaiting visitors from Fermanagh. With all this talk of superstars in the locality, I tell them my own stories.

Johnny Depp used my neighbour’s bathroom when he was filming Divine Rapture in Ballycotton in 1995. He had been and gone back to the film set before I knew it.

And when Gabriel Byrne married Hannah Beth King in Ballymaloe House in 2014, the Irish heartthrob passed my kitchen window riding a bicycle on his way to a local seamstress to get his bride-to-be’s dress altered. I was unaware of this until the seamstress told me the next day.

Captain Tony is au fait with all the famous and infamous comings and goings along the Blackwater.

“When Ed Sheeran played in Cork, he stayed at Dyson’s house,” says Tony, previously a fisherman in Helvick, Co. Waterford.

“Ed was brought to Lombard’s Bar on the Tallow road for a pint.

“When Ed dropped in, there was no talk, until an elderly man sitting in the corner eventually piped up and said. ‘Are you one of the Murphys from Knockanore!’”

Approaching a view from the river of Ballyinatray House, Tony fills us in on more local lore.

“The area surrounding the estate was the backdrop to the Stanley Kubrick film Barry Lyndon in 1975. The famous dual scene was filmed there.”

The Dyson estate and the associated farm complex look magnificent. There are 350 windows in the Georgian-style house, which is another acquisition for Dyson, who has homes in London, France and Singapore, and whose personal and family fortunes amount to €20 billion. He also owns farms and estates in the English shires.

“It looks like Downton Abbey,” says Michael from Fermanagh.

There’s more.

“Mr Dyson has a 300ft yacht in the Caribbean,” says Tony. “I have a photo of it here,” he says, passing around the picture of the luxury craft resembling the Christina Onassis yacht. “We are passing the boathouse now,” says Tony, pointing to the building where a family of four could easily live in comfort.

A leisure craft is parked beside the rib.

“You can see that there is construction going on in the grounds where all the diggers are beside the boathouse,” says Tony. “That is going to be a helipad.

“Mr Dyson has kindly given permission for the air ambulance service to land there if an emergency arises. That is very nice of him. He did the right thing.”

Tony adds: “There is a protocol on the river. Where one boat lets the other boat pass, Mr Dyson always observes the protocol.”

Half an hour from Youghal, we reach Strancally Castle, where Zuckerburg and his partner, Priscilla Chan, have installed a hi-tech pool, engineered by Cork-based Cumnor.

A blurb on the firm’s online portfolio describes the project as a ‘striking below-ground leisure facility, seamlessly integrated with a historic setting. It delivered a 25m indoor-outdoor swimming pool with a rising floor that transforms into a terrace alongside spa, gym, and lounge space”

Talking to locals, they say that the amount of forestry planted on the grounds makes the castle almost invisible.

“Even by helicopter, it would be really difficult to get a view of Strancally Castle”, says Youghal fisherman Roger McGrath. “A lot of people would love to get a sconce at it!”

Tony is cruising upriver later and he can point people in the general direction of Strancally Castle, a three-storey over-basement gothic building on the 440-acre site on the Waterford estate covering thousands of acres.

“Tourists are always interested,” says Tony.

Mary in the Youghal Tourist office concurs with Tony.

“Yes, lots of people are curious about two world-famous billionaires buying property along the Blackwater,” she said. “Youghal tourism was great this year, especially with all the fine weather we had.”

Nothing lasts forever though

“Now it’s back-to-school time!”

What does former Cork County Mayor, Mary Linehen Foley, from Youghal, make of two world-famous multi-millionaires dwelling almost on her doorstep?

“It is great for the area and we welcome them,” says Mary.

“And it just shows how lucky we are to live in this part of the world when people like James Dyson and Mark Zuckerburg are looking to live here.

“Youghal was already firmly on the map. Now, more than ever, it is a sought-after destination for people at both home and abroad.”

The Fermanagh visitors and I bid farewell to Tony and to his trusted crew member, Scuba. We are heading home.