Michael Flatley has decided to sell his Cork mansion, Castlehyde House, and is seeking €20-30m for the residence that he bought for just £3m back in 1999. In the intervening years, he has spent nearly €30m restoring the estate, and the results are quite spectacular, as VIP discovered when we did a photoshoot with Michael in the summer of 2011.
“There certainly would be bigger, fancier, more expensive places,” he told VIP, “but to me it’s one of the most beautiful places in the world. My wife feels the same, and I know Michael Jnr. absolutely loves it here.”Michael has spared no expense in renovating the house, using only the finest craftsmen, many of them locals from the North Cork region.
The main reception room features pillars embellished with 24 carat goal leaf, and the chandelier was created by Wilkinson, who count Buckingham Palace amongst their client list! The house also features a magnificent wine cellar, library and fully-functioning bar, and has played host to parties that are the stuff of legend.
Despite all this, Michael feels that it is time to move on, as work commitments mean that he can no longer spend as much time here as he’d like. “”It simply wasn’t an option going forward,” he said, “to have this beautiful house and yet be only able to spend a couple of weeks there every year. It wasn’t right and it wasn’t feasible.”
Speaking to VIP four years ago, Flatley admitted that his project to restore Castlehyde was still ongoing. “There is always something to do,” he told us. “It will never really be finished; you’re constantly adding or fixing or changing, or making it better.”And now, it seems, Michael has sadly admitted that he will never finish the project…
