Abandoned Ireland

Product Information

Carrigglas Manor, County Longford – a fairy-tale exterior with a ghostly interior Credit: @IrishAesthete There is something very disarming seeing the contents of someone’s home, someone’s life; abandoned. All the accoutrements of daily life arranged or strewn in a manner wholly unique to the people who once inhabited the space. The house came to a terrible end on February 1, 1923 when it was burned down during the Irish Civil War as Maurice Moore, the brother of the owner of Moore Hall, was viewed as pro-Treaty. It is a place of national historic significance and several members of the Moore family played major parts in the social, cultural, literary and political history of Ireland from the late 1700s to the early 1900s.

Abandoned Ireland – Irish Academic Press Abandoned Ireland – Irish Academic Press

And yet, even in the ruins, Brownlie believes there is often something worth preserving. “No matter what state a house is in, you can find beauty in the decay. Even in asylums, the architecture was unbelievable and something that couldn’t be replicated now.” With death at its centre, it is clear why this former city mortuary in Belfast sits high on our list of abandoned places in Ireland that will creep you out. However, visiting is not advised for your own safety due to the deteriorating state and would also be considered trespassing as this is private property. All houses have an energy, good and bad. I’ve gone into houses in the snow and they’ve been as warm as if the fire was on, and you can feel the warmth and the welcome of the people who lived there. Then there are other houses where you know you’re not welcome, and I would always listen to that, respect it, and leave.” Links with Lady Dixon, Cairndhu House was initially built as a summer residence but during the war it was used as a hospital and in 1950 it was officially opened as a convalescence hospital. Inmates were free to leave when they liked, but most of those who entered weren’t in the position to do so. Many children lived their entire lives there, not knowing any other existence.

So, obviously the dork within me was well on board for listening to a talk all about abandoned buildings, in an abandoned building. How very meta. The sense of history evoked when walking between rooms traversed by people of a different time has an awe-inspiring capability that I find endlessly fascinating. Rebecca Brownlie provides a rapid sketch of the house’s 20th-century history: its beginnings as a property built, rebuilt and rebuilt again by a fussy Scottish industrialist; its final iteration as a complicated Edwardian mansion; and its salad days as a focus of what passed for high society in a narrow, unionist-controlled Northern Ireland (Princess Margaret, who seems to feature in every story of the 20th century, inevitably pops up here too). Carindhu House looks like a haunted house straight from a horror film set in small town America. It has such an imposing appearance that is at once delightful and mildly terrifying to observe. And like all good horror houses, it’s a building that has a rich history. This is why technology can be so transforming. It’s eminently sensible to use the swarm of people out and about in different areas to do the hunting for vacant homes and then to make targeted interventions where it’s possible."

Abandoned Ni Abandoned Ni

Rebecca Brownlie grew up in a small rural village in County Down, Northern Ireland. When she was just twelve years old, she won her first camera on a TV game show and her love of photography was sparked. From that day on, a camera is rarely far from her side. Her passion for abandoned buildings and love of photography have led her to appear on several local television shows featuring some of Ireland’s lost buildings. She is an avid adventurer, and can be regularly found hiking up mountainsides with her four-legged friend and children in tow. I had no option but to give up the keys, and suspecting what was on I pointed out to the leader that the house was not Colonel Moore's property. This had no effect. Built in 1830, this gothic castle was the subject of a paranormal investigation TV show, Destination Truth. There have been numerous reports of the ‘Bean Si,’ or Banshee, being spotted among the ruins of this former estate and grounds. In previous posts I’ve talked about my penchant for old buildings. I’ve done a paranormal tour of East Belfast’s Strand Cinema, explored Hillsborough Castle, traversed Belfast learning about street art brightening up many abandoned buildings in the city; and much more besides.

You may also love

It’s made her passionate about trying to save, or at least document, our abandoned buildings before they’re destroyed or altered. Currently she’s on a mission to try and photograph Millbrook House, a 9,000sq ft decaying mansion built in 1885 in Co Laois, before renovations start. Two exorcisms were performed (the first ever recorded in Ireland) by Fr Peter Smyth and Fr Eugene Coyle from Maguiresbridge. These proved to be unsuccessful. These busy years faded with the austerity of war, and the property gradually declined and was sold to the State, which failed to care adequately for the house. And so at last its eventual abandonment, although to these all-too-familiar tropes are added a dash of the unexpected: Ridley Scott used the house as a film set; and Brownlie herself first encountered Cairndhu as a member of a paranormal investigations group. For Cairndhu is, on top of everything else, haunted, although one assumes not by Princess Margaret.

Ireland right now costing €30,000 Derelict homes for sale in Ireland right now costing €30,000

George Moore, the owner, wrote a letter to The Morning Post two weeks after the burning where he quoted someone who described watching the ancestral home go up in flames. At five I went to the place and found the whole house was seething in a mass of flames. I at once saw that all was hopeless. Some visitors to the overgrown Moore Hall and its grounds have described it as “magical”, a “hidden gem” and something out of a “fairy tale”.I know that behind that doorway was just an empty kitchen and canteen,” says Brownlie. “There was no other door in, no cupboards that anyone could have been hiding in, it had been completely stripped.”

10 ABANDONED places in Ireland that will CREEP you out

The haunting photograph, captured from above by a drone, shows the abandoned ruins of a large Irish stately home with some of the trees growing so close, they are beginning to take over the house. It was bought by Mayo County Council in 2018 for €400,000 with the intention of enhancing and developing it as a nature reserve and tourist attraction.Whether you're a believer in the paranormal or just a fan of a good scare, Ireland is riddled with abandoned places that will creep out even the bravest of souls. The council now own the 80 acres of woodland estate overlooking Lough Carra in west Mayo, including the house, courtyard and walled garden and the grounds are open to the public.