Apple is giving up on its dream of building a £738 million data in Ireland, after it was reported by The Times that the site is now up for sale. 

The proposed Derrydonnell data centre in Athenry, County Galway, was due to be home to one of Apple’s largest data centres in Europe. The company planned to hire 150 people in the local area to staff the data centre, but still received quite a lot of local opposition, causing Apple to finally cancel the project in 2018. 

Many had hoped that Apple would revive the plans at a later date, after all the company still owned the site, but the iPhone maker’s attention turned to building a facility in Denmark. That’s why it’s now decided to put the Irish site on the market for an undisclosed sum. 

The site is being advertised as a ‘ready to go data centre development site’, as Apple had already secured full planning permission for buildings totalling 320,000 sqft. The site is being sold by commercial real estate firm Binswanger. 

Trouble and strife

Apple’s plans for a large European data centre have been plagued with issues from day one. While it quickly obtained planning permission from the local council for the Irish site, environmental protestors managed to lodge complaints that went all the way to the country’s Supreme Court, who ruled in the protesters’ favour. 

Even Apple’s site in Denmark has not been without issues, with the proposed Danish Viborg facility having been hit by numerous delays and stalled construction, with the firm also changing building contractors. An additional data centre in Denmark was also planned, but that too has been cancelled with the site now on the market.