Irish American John Malone pays $10million for luxury Irish estate

Cable TV entrepreneur is now the king of the Wicklow castle

By: PATRICK COUNIHAN | Published Thursday, December 27, 2012, 6:26 AM | Updated Thursday, December 27, 2012, 9:53 AM

Billionaire Irish American media guru John Malone has emerged as the mystery buyer of a $10million castle in County Wicklow.

The Irish Times has reported that Malone has bought the 142-year-old Humewood Castle.

Already America’s largest private land owner, Malone can now call himself the Lord of the Manor.

The Liberty Media chairman and cable TV entrepreneur paid almost $10million for the 15-bedroom, 38,000-square-foot estate on 427-acres in County Wicklow.

The report says Malone intends to refurbish the estate which includes woods, private lakes and stables, three staff cottages and three gate lodges.

The purchase represents a return to his Irish roots for Malone whose family come from County Cork.

The deal also represents real value for Malone as Galway developer John Lally paid an incredible $33million to buy the property in 2006 from German businesswoman Renata Coleman.

At the time it was the most expensive country house sale in Ireland.

Lally planned to turn the estate into a 250 million euro luxury golf development but the collapse of the Celtic Tiger scuppered those plans.

The Connecticut born Malone already owns 2.2 million acres of land in the United States.

He also owns Irish cable TV and internet company UPC and has invested more than $1.3billion in Ireland.