Haunted Britain

Product Information

When Bodb heard of this, he sought to make peace with his adversary, and offered him the hand of one of his three treasured stepdaughters in marriage. Lir, filled with remorse at the Kings generosity abandoned his ambitions, accepted Bodb’s friendship, and chose Aobh, the eldest daughter, as his wife. The second and third parts of the spell passed less comfortably, but finally nine hundred years had gone by and the swans flew ashore to return to their fathers’ palace. But then, in October 1969, a group of actors staying at the arts centre decided to hold a séance for a joke and the disturbances began again. Furthermore they seemed to have raised the spirits of two nuns, who would appear before startled witnesses in the gallery of the centre.

Local legend tells how Richard "Burnchapel" Whaley, a member of one of the areas richest families, had joined the society and had revelled in the debauched rituals. But the horrified attendants refused, warning her that "it is a bad deed you have thought of, and harm will come to you out of it."Incensed by the Diarmaid’s actions, the Saint came to Tara and, ringing his sacred bell, pronounced the fateful incantation "Desolate be Tara for ever and ever." The last of the family to own Leap Castle was Jonathan Charles Darby who arrived here on 16th July 1880. But then Finiannola spoke out, telling him who they were and what had happened. Realising that his children were now beyond help, Lir let out a howl of anguish and collapsed weeping to the ground. This, coupled with the sudden death shortly thereafter of one of his daughters brought on a fit depression that lasted two years.

She was seen in the latter part of the 19th century by a houseguest named Miss Wilson, who had sat up late one night chatting with the daughter of the house, Milly Conyngham. The relentless assault of the elements gradually reduced it to the ruin that it is today and no visitor can fail to be impressed by its mysterious ambience and dramatic location.Others have caught glimpses of a furtive figure flitting across reception and disappearing close to the stone fireplace. Yet its majestic splendour is tinged with a fearsome reputation, for it was always maintained that, whenever one of its branches fell, a member of the Charleville family would die. Two female spirits are said to haunt the halls, the Blue Lady and the White Lady . The White Lady is believed to be the spirit of the beautiful Margaret Pomeroy, who fell in love with the same man as her sister, Lady Eleanor. Eleanor was so jealous that she imprisoned Margaret in the castle’s dungeons and it’s thought that Margaret still haunts the dungeons to this day. A sense of genuine antiquity prevails over the sylvan landscape that cradles Ireland’s most enigmatic and impressive Gothic revival castles in a protective embrace.