Was a Castle built on James Bond Island by an Irish Billionaire during the global property boom?

No, of course not you silly sausage. The heavily viewed image of a castle on top of a famous tourist island in Thailand was never built nor even considered by anybody in Thailand nor in Dublin where this "Castle Rock Ireland" was stated to be located somewhere off the coast of the Irish Republic.

"Castle Rock Ireland" in Dublin, Thailand, Facebook or Pinterest?
"Castle Rock Ireland" in Dublin, Thailand?

However a magical half castle, half island was merely a creation from the imagination of one naughty prankster's mind combined with set of decent photoshop skills and a burst of self-propelling viral hoaxing via social media. Mind you with architectural ambitions like this its no wonder the Irish Property Bubble imploded!!

The image in fact combined Koh Tapu (aka Nail Island aka "James Bond Rock") and a very nicely integrated selection of Lichtenstein Castle in Baden-Wurttemburg, Germany which resulted in a magical fairy tale castle perched upon a tropical island somewhere along the Emersld Isles. This photoshopped piece of trickery was soon being twittered and facebooked across the globe under the title "Castle Rock Ireland" and "Castle Rock Dublin."

But it was thanks to Pinterest, Posterous and a few other Social Media sites that led to an extra 20,000 visits to this site in a month in 2011, most of whom were trying to find out the history of the Southern Thai islands near Phuket and Krabi made famous by the "Man with the Golden Gun" 007 movie.

Lichtenstein Castle & James Bond Rock before Photoshop Shotgun Wedding
Lichtenstein Castle & James Bond Rock before Photoshop Shotgun Wedding