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Dun Dreach-Fhoula – The Blood-Soaked Castle of the Reeks

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Said to be found deep in the mountain range MacGillycuddy’s Reeks in Kerry, Ireland, the ruins of Dun Dreach-Fhoula castle is said to be the home of bloodthirsty fairies of the Otherworld. Question is if it’s an ancient legend or a modern hoax. 

The Castle of Tainted Blood or the Castle of The Blood Visage is supposedly a fortress in the mountains in Kerry in Ireland, said to be inhabited and built by the blood sucking and shape-shifting fairies from ancient times.

Read More: Check out all ghost stories in Ireland

But how much truth is the legend of the supposed bloodthirsty fairies? Is it truly as old as the story claims? And what is the truth about its connection to Dracula? Let’s first have a look at what the legend tells. 

The MacGillycuddy’s Reeks: The Coomloughra Horseshoe Loop Walk in Co. Kerry is one of Irelands best ridge walks. It is a strenuous 6 to 7 hour (12 km) hiking trail over several mountain peaks in the MacGillycuddy’s Reeks range including 4 of the top 5 highest mountains in Ireland. Thought to be the place where the ruins of fairy folk with a taste for blood lives. // Photo:Valerie O’Sullivan

The Legend of the Castle of Tainted Blood

High among the jagged slopes of Kerry’s MacGillycuddy’s Reeks, meaning Black Stacks in Irish, it goes on for 19 kilometers from Gap of Dunloe in the east to Glencar in the west. It’s Ireland’s highest mountain range with the highest peak and sharpest ridges. 

 It is said that this is the place where the ruins of Dun Dreach-Fhoula, a fortress of blood and death, is hidden away in the misty mountains. The “Castle of the Blood Visage,” as it translates, was said to guard a lonely mountain pass where few dared to travel. The silence of the peaks, the thick mist that curls around their ancient stones, and perhaps it was the strange crimson hue  of the stone that sometimes stains the walls after rainfall gave rise to whispers of a darker truth. It was said that the very rock itself was cursed, steeped in the blood of the living and haunted by creatures that were neither mortal nor divine.

The legends tell that Dun Dreach-Fhoula was not built by human hands alone. According to the old stories, the fortress was raised by beings from the Otherworld and blood-drinking fae who hid from sunlight and feasted upon travelers who strayed too close. The pass they guarded was more than a road through the mountains; it was a threshold between life and death. 

The Dracula Connection

Bram Stoker: There has been a lot of work connecting vampires and the fame and lore of vampires to Ireland. But how true are these claims? How was the Irish vampiric lore before modern fame?

Now, the legend is not really told as a stand alone story, but it is certainly mentioned when talking about alternative theories to the inspiration behind Dracula. Many have argued that this Irish legend, rather than the history of Vlad the Impaler, may have inspired Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Though Stoker himself claimed otherwise, the rumour about it being more Irish than anything exists and has taken hold in lore since at least the 90s.

He never visited Eastern Europe and relied on travelers’ tales to construct his vampire’s homeland. At the same time, in Dublin’s National Museum, Geoffrey Keating’s History of Ireland was displayed, filled with accounts of undead spirits and ancient chieftains who rose from their graves to drink blood.

One such tale was that of Abhartach, the blood-drinking lord of Irish legend, whose grave was said to exude darkness even in daylight. Around the same period, writer Patrick W. Joyce published a story about this same chieftain, spreading his name throughout Ireland. I

Read More: The Legend of Ireland’s Vampire King Abhartach and the Haunted Giant’s Grave

The words alone, “the place of tainted blood”, seem like something born from Gothic imagination, yet they belong to Ireland’s own folklore. Or does it? Is it really just a piece of Gothic imagination? Some say that the very word Dracula comes from the word, Droch-fhoula. But if we start to dismantle the grammar and linguistic history of the Droch-fhoula, it seems to fall apart. And the question is, does the whole legend of Droch-fhoula fall apart if you take a close look at it?

The Hunt for Droch-fhoula Castle

Now, the tale gets passed around that Droch-fhoula comes from ancient Irish legends. The expression is believed to refer to blood feuds between people or families. Could it also be for a vampire legend native to Ireland?

It looks like this claim comes from Peter Haining and Peter Tremayne in their book The Un-Dead from 1997. According to them, they got the story sent to them in a letter from Cathal Ó Sándair in 1995. It is supposed to be from a lecture delivered by a man called Ó Súilleabháin, the head of the Irish Folklore Commission, who supposedly mentioned a castle called Dún Dreach-Fhola in Magillicuddy’s Reeks inhabited by blood-drinking fairies:


It was Ó Sándair, writing to the authors in April 1995, who also made the observation that Bram might have been guided to use the name of the historical Wallachian hero – Dracula – because it sounded the same as the Irish droch-fhola (pronounced drok’ola), bad blood; he might even have connected the name with a Kerry folk-tale about ‘Dún Dreach-Fhola’ (pronounced drak’ola), the castle of blood visage. The castle was said to be high up in a lonely pass among the Macgillicuddy’s Reeks, a range in Co. Kerry, which contains Ireland’s highest mountain. Ó Sándair may well be right: Seán Ó Súilleabháin, the Kerry-born one time registrar and archivist of the Irish Folklore Commission, mentioned this same oral folk-tale in a lecture at UCD in 1961, prior to the publication of his book on Irish death customs, Caitheamh Aimsire ar Thórraimh, translated into English six years later as Irish Wake Amusements. He said it was told to him in the Macgillicuddy’s Reeks. The story concerns an ‘evil fairy fortress’ – Dún Dreach-Fhola, inhabited by neamh-mhairbh (Un-Dead), who sustained themselves on the blood of wayfarers. Unfortunately there is no reference to the story in Caithreamh [sic] Aimsire ar Thórraimh.
Source: The Un-dead, page 71

Folklorist, Owen Harding believes the origin of the word could come from this word and that the connection comes from a manuscript about another vampiric legend about The Abhartach. An article says: 

“Owen Harding says there was a manuscript published about this legend from an anonymous writer. It was entitled The Abhartach, Dreach-Fhoula. This document was exhibited up till 1868 in none other than Trinity College which Stoker attended. So is it likely that Stoker used this story to base his novel on? Harding believes it is.”

Is it true that these writers got the story from a folklorist who collected Ó Súilleabháin was a folklorist, but there are as of now, no primary sources directly from him about this legend. In fact, an article about his work actually said: Vampires are not to be found in Seán Ó Súilleabháin’s A Handbook of Irish Folklore, published in 1942. So that this part is true is rather dubious. It is also worth noting that both Hauning and Tremayne also wrote a lot of fiction and perhaps were not careful enough in their research. 

Although they are claiming these folklorists and writers have been straight up lying about it and most hits searching for it is a blog post dedicated to expose the story as fabricated and not ancient and local of Kerry at all. So it begs the question, was it more of a mistranslation and confusing old Irish text, or about fabricating them to make stronger claims about Irish connection to Dracula? Or is it really a piece of evidence somewhere, where the tales and ruins of a castle inhabited by blood thirsty fairies exist?

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References:

Dun Dreach-Fhoula

dún dreach-fhola | cassidyslangscam 

How Bram Stoker created Dracula with the aid of Irish folklore

More on Irish Vampires – The Bad Blood of Dracula | cassidyslangscam

https://archive.org/stream/CreepyStories/EncyclopediaOfVampireMythology_djvu.txt

‘Ancient’ Vampire Legends from 1997! | cassidyslangscam 

Vampires A Field Guide To The Creatures That Stalk The Night [PDF] [6pe6eq38o090]

https://magiaposthuma.blogspot.com/2008/08/perhaps-little-too-high.html

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The Haunted Shelbourne Hotel and the Ghost of Mary Masters

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According to staff members and guests, paranormal investigators and even celebrities, the Shelbourne Hotel in Dublin is haunted. Legend has it that a young cholera victim called Mary Masters has been haunting the place for centuries. 

On the grand curve of St. Stephen’s Green stands The Shelbourne Hotel, a place of elegance, history, and lingering whispers of a ghostly presence. Beneath its crystal chandeliers and polished marble lies nearly two centuries of a mystery. 

Read More: Check out all ghost stories from Ireland

Since opening its doors in 1824, the Shelbourne has welcomed royalty, revolutionaries, poets, and presidents. Among its most enduring guests is one who never left, a little ghost known as Mary Masters.

Shelbourne Hotel: Joseph Mischyshyn / Dublin – Shellbourne Hotel / CC BY-SA 2.0

A Hotel of Grandeur and Ghosts

The Shelbourne Hotel was designed to embody luxury and sophistication, its Georgian façade a testament to Dublin’s golden age. Inside, generations of visitors have come seeking comfort and refinement. Martin Burke from Tupperary bought three of the townhouses on St. Stephen’s Green, wanting to make the grand hotel. 

The Haunted Hotel: Image from 1885 of Shelbourne Hotel.

It is said that one room, in particular, has a reputation that chills even the most skeptical guests: Room 526. Staff and visitors alike have spoken of eerie occurrences like lights flickering, taps turning on by themselves, and the distinct feeling of being watched. The culprit, they say, is a child.

The Haunted Shelbourne Hotel

The story of the haunting came to prominence in 1965 when famed American paranormal investigator Hans Holzer and British psychic Sybil Leek visited The Shelbourne. They were on a tour to explore some of the most haunted places in Dublin. The hotel had already become notorious among staff for unexplainable events, and Holzer was invited to investigate. And if the haunting was a well known thing before they arrived, it certainly became notorious after.

Paranormal Investigators: Sybil Leek (née Fawcett; 22 February 1917 – 26 October 1982) was an English witch, astrologer, occult author and self-proclaimed psychic. She was called Britain’s most famous witch by the BBC. Hans Holzer (26 January 1920 – 26 April 2009) wrote more than 120 books on supernatural and occult and hosted a television show, Ghost Hunter.

How they investigated the hotel and got their information, was not necessarily through historical records. During a séance held in Room 526, or 256 by some accounts, Leek made contact with a spirit who identified herself as Mary Masters.

Read More: Check out all haunted hotels around the world

The first night, Sybil invited the ghost child into her room, and felt a small child climb into her bed, although she couldn’t see anything. She also claimed to have felt a woolly material brush against her cheek and right arm. When she woke up the next morning, her arm was numb, almost as someone had laid upon it. 

The next evening, Sybil went into a trance and had a full conversation with the child that she was unable to remember when she came too. According to Leek, the girl said she was seven years old, named Mary Masters and had died in the building in the 18th century, before the hotel as we know it was completed. According to them, the little girl seemed to be ill. She described herself as lonely and frightened, unable to find her mother. She was also looking for her big sister, Sophie. The room grew cold during the session, and witnesses claimed they heard the faint sound of a child crying near the window.

Encounters with the Spirit of Mary

Since that famous investigation, countless guests have claimed to experience something strange in the hotel. Some report hearing soft footsteps padding across the carpet in the dead of night. Others have woken to the sensation of a small hand touching their cheek. Maids have spoken of seeing the shadow of a little girl reflected in mirrors or vanishing behind curtains.

The encounter is not really isolated to this one room though, as hotel staff have reported seeing her around the hotel, like in the basement and wine cellar when they are stocking wine, or doing laundry. 

Even the celebrity and actress Lily Collins shared publicly about her ghostly encounter when she stayed at the Shelbourne Hotel when she was interviewed on Jimmy Fallon. As she was sleeping in room 255 she felt a presence by her bed and a giggle before doors started slamming and a rush of air flew past her. When asking about it, the hotel staff told her about Mary Masters. 

Lily Collins and her Ghost Experience: Worth noting though, is that Lily Collins is a firm believer in ghosts, as she also claimed to have experienced the ghost of Ted Bundy’s victim when she was filming his biopic, “Extremely Wicked”. Here, she started to wake up at 3:05 am every night in preproduction. “I started being woken up by flashes of images, like the aftermath of a struggle,” she said

Documenting the Haunting at Shelbourne Hotel

In an RTÉ documentary about the staff working at the historical hotel, that seems to be from 2014/2015, management at the palatial hotel admitted that on several occasions, terrified guests had run out of the eerie room screaming in panic.

The hotel managers even gave a staff member orders to stay in the room overnight as there were so many reports about activity, at least 2-3 times per week over a period of six months. The staff member didn’t particularly believe it all, but were convinced when the taps in the bathroom turned as the guests had complained about. 

Uncovering the Mystery of Mary Masters

The ground on which the Shelbourne stands has seen centuries of Dublin’s transformation. Before the hotel was built, this area of St. Stephen’s Green was lined with Georgian townhouses, one of which may have been the Masters’ family home. Early tenants in the 1600 and 1700s built simple two-storey houses, with much of it undeveloped on the 1728 map. By the time of John Roque’s map in 1756, the pace of building had accelerated rapidly.

But who was Mary Masters? The little girl said to haunt the hotel? According to most sources, they claim she used to live in one of the three townhouses that was before the hotel.

According to the paranormal researches in 65, Mary Masters had died in 1846, and was one of the children growing up in the houses that stood on the ground before they were made into the hotel. This is strange to say though, as the hotel was founded in 1824 by Martin Burke. Apparently, Sybil Leek got the year in one of her trances. 

So, it’s rather unlikely that was the year she died. It did get a new owner and was renovated in 1865 by William Jury, Charles Cotton and Christian Goodman, but the building was used as a hotel all the while. 

And as in the retelling from Lily Collins and the staff, they told that Mary had actually died of cholera in 1791 and that little  Mary must have been around 7 years old. This is the year that has been passed around most perhaps, as it seems to fit more with the narrative of the buildings. Although, there have been no traces of any family named Masters or a girl named Mary who lived in one of the three town houses. 

But was there cholera in Ireland in 1791? It is believed that Cholera were introduced to Ireland from India, probably through British troops. The epidemic in Ireland was in the 1830s, and killed 50 000 people. It is said that the illness started in India in 1817. So this story is also rather improbable. 

While skeptics dismiss the tale as hotel folklore, the stories persist. Modern visitors still ask for Room 526, curious or brave enough to see if the stories are true. Some leave convinced they felt something unseen, while others depart with nothing more than a chill that refuses to fade.

According to investigators, most of the supposed haunting has turned out to be banging noises from plumbing, bad wiring that increases the electromagnetic field that has turned out makes people paranoid and seeing things. There are also scratching noises in the attic that have turned out to be mice and rats. But as always, there are some points that are still left unanswered.

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References:

Shelbourne Hotel, Dublin, Ireland | Haunted Rooms®

Actress Lily Collins haunted by Dublin hotel ghost | Irish Independent

Ghost of young girl haunts Dublin’s Shelbourne Hotel, claim guests and staff

Epidemics in Ireland – A Short History – The Irish Story 

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Brogans Bar: The Secret Passage to the Past

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Said to house both piles of Guinness, the Brogan’s Bar in Dublin is also said to house a few ghosts. Visitors and staff have long talked about the strange things that go down at the pub after the final call has been rung. 

On the busy stretch of Dame Street, tucked beside the historic Olympia Theatre, stands Brogans Bar, a place where Dublin’s laughter mingles with whispers from centuries past and a few ghosts lingering according to the tales. 

Read More: Check out all ghost stories from Ireland

Long before it became known by its present name, it was called Leonards, and even then it held a reputation as one of the city’s oldest and most characterful taverns. It also served like The Viking Inn, one of the first gay bars in Dublin. 

The bar is said to have the largest collection of Guinness memorabilia outside of the brewery. Within its low ceilings and time-worn beams, stories of politics, rebellion, and revelry have soaked into the walls like spilled whiskey. Michael Collins himself is said to have been a regular, plotting the future of Ireland over a quiet pint. Yet not all of Brogans’ visitors have been so easily seen.

The Haunted Brogan’s Bar

Those who close up after the final rounds have long reported strange happenings in the shadows of the bar. Soft footsteps echo across the wooden floors when no one else is there. Being next door from the notoriously haunted Olympia Theatre has also fueled the rumours of this building  having ghost of their own. 

Read More: The Ghostly Tales of Dublin’s Olympia Theatre

Like with the theatre, the haunting in this bar is said to be a bit vague, although prominent. Glasses rattle as if disturbed by invisible hands. On one unsettling occasion, a door was smashed open with such force that staff believed an intruder had entered, only to find the pub empty and still. There are also reported about mysterious footsteps after closing time.

So what could be haunting the Brogan’s? Could it have something to do about the alleged secret tunnels underneath the building? The pub lies directly opposite the ancient entrance to Dublin Castle. Beneath Brogans, according to local legend, lies a secret passageway that once ran directly under Dame Street and into the heart of Dublin Castle. No one knows exactly when it was built, or for what purpose, but many believe it was used for discreet meetings, smuggling, or escape during troubled times. 

Today, the entrance is said to be sealed, though some claim to feel cold drafts rising from the cellar floor and hear faint voices murmuring below. Perhaps the passage is not as closed as it seems. When the lights dim and the street outside grows quiet, Brogans Bar stands as a reminder that Dublin’s history is never truly buried. 

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References:

Top 11 Haunted Dublin Pubs Full Of Spirits! | Spooky Isles

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Bull and Castle Pub: The Melancholy Ghost of James Clarence Mangan

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Said to haunt his former childhood home that is now the Bull and Castle Pub in Dublin, the ghost of the melancholic writer James Clarence Mangan is said to linger. 

At the corner of Lord Edward Street, across from Christ Church Cathedral, stands the Bull and Castle Pub that used to be known as The Castle Inn. The building hums with laughter and the clink of glasses, but every so often, when the music dips and the air grows strangely still, a cold presence sweeps through the room. The warmth vanishes, the lights dim ever so slightly, and those who know the story say the poet has returned. 

Read More: Check out all ghost stories from Ireland

James Clarence Mangan, Ireland’s most tormented wordsmith, was born on this very ground in 1803, and some believe his spirit still lingers where his troubled life began.

Source

The Ghost of James Clarence Mangan

Before it was a pub, it was the birthplace of James Clarence Mangan (1803-1849), or Séamus Ó Mangáin as it was in Irish. He was born at number 3 Fishamble Street, the ancient Virus Piscariorum of Dublin, on the first day of May, 1803. It was a pub back then also, but the original building has been torn down and rebuilt. 

He was the son of James Mangan, a former hedge school teacher and native of Shanagolden, County Limerick, and Catherine Smith from Kiltale, County Meath. After marrying Smith, James Mangan took over a grocery business in Dublin owned by the Smith family, eventually becoming bankrupt as a result.

After the famine in 1840, he started to write patriotic poetry and was seen as one of Ireland’s first national poets. The poet was best known for his work Róisín Dubh.

Mangan was both celebrated and cursed. Renowned by literary giants like Yeats and Joyce, he lived as if haunted long before death. A frail and eccentric figure, he was known for his peculiar costume: a long, tattered cloak, tinted green spectacles, and a blond wig that barely masked his gaunt features as well as his witch’s hat and umbrella. 

Beneath that eccentricity hid a soul consumed by melancholy, opium, and drink. His poetry spoke of exile, despair, and doomed longing, and it is said those same feelings have soaked into the very foundations of the Bull and Castle.

After years of despair, he sadly died of cholera in 1849 when he was only 46 and buried in Glasnevin Cemetery. But is he truly gone, or is he still haunting his childhood home?

The Haunted Bull and Castle Pub

Locals whisper that the pub’s strange chills and sudden silences are not tricks of the air but signs of Mangan’s ghost revisiting his birthplace. Some have heard soft mutterings near the back of the bar, as if someone were reciting verse in a voice that carries both sorrow and beauty.

Patrons who stay late often describe a creeping heaviness that settles without warning, a melancholy that drains conversation and leaves only the distant sound of a sigh and the pints empty.

Perhaps the poet is drawn back to where his story began, still searching for peace he never found in life. Or perhaps his verses, so steeped in loss, have tethered him to this world. Either way, the Bull and Castle holds more than good ale and hearty company. Beneath its laughter, the ghost of James Clarence Mangan waits, cloaked in sorrow and memory, drifting once more through the city that both inspired and destroyed him.

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References:

The 10 most haunted pubs in Dublin | The Irish Post

James Clarence Mangan – Wikipedia

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The Lady of the Stairs Haunting Ardgillan Castle

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Outside of Dublin overlooking the Irish sea, a white lady is said to be haunting the premise. Seen coming up from the beach and wandering on the castle grounds, the ghost that is called the Lady of the Stairs is just one of the ghosts said to linger at Ardgillan Castle. 

High above the crashing waves of the Irish Sea, where the green hills of Balbriggan roll toward the cliffs, stands Ardgillan Castle around 20 miles from Dublin. It is not the castle itself that draws whispers of the supernatural, but the lonely bridge known as The Lady’s Stairs, where a sorrowful figure is said to appear on misty nights.

Read More: Check out all ghost stories from Ireland

Built in 1738 by Reverend Robert Taylor, Ardgillan Castle has long stood as one of North Dublin’s most striking estates and it remained in the family until 1962. The grounds stretch toward the sea, with manicured gardens giving way to rugged cliffs and the endless horizon beyond. But even in such beauty, tragedy has left its mark. When the railway came, so did the private stairs down to their private beach in the 19th century at the end of the property overlooking the Irish sea. The stairs have been named The Lady’s Stairs, and it comes with a haunted story.

Legend of The Lady of the Stairs

The most famous ghost said to haunt Ardgillan is that of the Lady of the Stairs. There are particularly two legends said to be the origin of the ghosts. According to the first version, the Lady of the Stairs was the devoted wife of a nobleman who loved to swim daily in the cold, unpredictable waters below the estate. Each day, the Lady of the castle would walk to the arched footbridge overlooking the sea, known ever since as The Lady’s Stairs, to watch for his safe return.

One fateful evening, as the tide swelled and the skies turned dark, her husband did not come back. He was claimed by the merciless sea, leaving Lady Langford broken with grief. She returned to the bridge again and again, hoping in vain to see him emerge from the waves. Her vigil ended only when she too passed away, although her ghostly presence is still watching out for her long lost husband.

The Ghost of Lady Langford

Some however, say that the ghost is actually Louisa Augusta Connolly, Baroness of Langford haunting the Lady’s Stairs. Lord Langford of Summerhill House in Co Meath had just married her and brought her to the castle as he went hunting in Scotland as she was a friend of the Taylors. 

Lady Langford lost her life in a drowning accident on the 4th of November in 1853 on their private beach. She was known as a strong swimmer, but it was November, and the wind and waves got stronger and she was pulled out to sea. Several people saw her lifeless body floating in the water, but the waves were too strong to swim against. 

A boat had been launched from Balbriggan, believed to be manned by Mr McGregor. and at 1.40pm, the boat brought her ashore. The lifeless body of Lady Langford was carried up the steep cliffside and across the bridge and on into the castle. Although the servants tried to bring her back to life by placing her in a hot bath, it was to no avail. She was only 31 years old when she died. 

The Ghost of the Lady’s Stairs

For generations, people walking near the cliffs after dusk have claimed to see a figure dressed in white standing silently on the bridge, her gaze fixed on the restless waters below. Locals call her The Lady of Ardgillan or the Lady of the Stairs.

Some say she appears only at twilight, her form faint and shimmering like sea mist. Others insist they have heard soft sobs carried on the wind or seen her vanish when approached. The air grows cold around The Lady’s Stairs, and those who linger too long often describe an overwhelming sense of sorrow, as if the grief of centuries still lingers there. It is also said that if a person goes to the end of the bridge at midnight on Halloween, she will appear and throw them to their death in the ocean. 

The Haunting of Uncle Ned

The Lady of the Stairs is not the only one said to be haunting Ardgillan Castle though, and the ghost of the Reverend, now called Uncle Ned is said to wander the cold corridors of the castle, still looking for his bible he lost. 

It is believed to be the ghost of Reverend Edward Taylor. He moved to the castle with his wife in 1807.  The story goes that he was sitting in the corner of the dining room on the 7th of June, 1852, reading his Bible. Suddenly, he died after a heart attack and the Bible fell out of his hands and to the floor. 

Outside there are 21 yew trees that were planted for his birthday, and workers have sometimes claimed to have seen Uncle Ned strolling on the yew walk. He is also said to be the one opening a particular door that opens by its own in the night. 

After the death of her husband, Mrs Taylor dismissed the staff and moved to Meath. She left a gardener with the key. Some time after, although not specified, the two sons of the gardener were working on the terrace where a passageway leads to the cellars through a glass door. As they were working, they heard footsteps approaching the door inside of the castle. And although they looked everywhere, they found no intruders, and all of the doors were locked. 

The gardener also had some experience with the paranormal activity of the castle, as he a few years before had seen a woman in a white dress, standing behind the glass cellar door. But when he moved to open the door for her, she vanished. When he talked with Mrs Taylor about it, she said she had been visited by the spirit of her son and talked with him, four nights after his death. 

The Castle Banshee

Not only has it been said that ghosts haunt the halls of the castle, there are also workers that swear they have met the ancient banshee entity Ireland is filled with. Tom Reilly, according to the Irish Independents says that one of the rangers swears he met the banshee once as he was making his rounds. This activity is said to have happened in the surrounding forest area, and Banshees are Celtic harbingers of death. She asked him for his comb and he never saw it again. 

The Banshee: People have depicted the Banshee as many things, everything from a beautiful fairy like woman to a monster. Here from the book Bunworth Banshee, Fairy Legends and Traditions of the South of Ireland by Thomas Crofton Croker, 1825

Whatever really happened, the ranger was apparently adamant that it really did happen, although it hasn’t been reported to have happened ever again. There have been investigators that claim to have evidence of a Banshee presence by screaming into an app and getting something screaming back. Make of that what you will. 

Source

There are also some reported activities, although a bit more vague in nature, in the old kitchens in the basement and the servants quarters in the east and west wings. According to Tom Riley, the local historian and manager of the castle, the death of Edward Richard Taylor’s death as well as a maid who allegedly died during childbirth in the castle, deaths that have helped fuel the haunted stories as well. 

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References:

Ghosts of Ardgillan | Irish Independent

The story of The White Lady of Ardgillan Castle | Skerries Historical Society

‘Spooked Ireland’ Team Tackles Generations-Old Banshee Haunting At Ardgillan Castle | Higgypop Paranormal

Ardgillan Castle – Wikipedia

And now they say her ghost walks the steps at Ardgillan Castle… | Irish Independent

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The Haunted National Museum of Ireland: Ghosts of Collins Barracks

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Now, the former barracks has turned into the National Museum of Ireland. If we are to believe the rumors, the ghosts of war from the former Collins Barracks are said to still linger. 

In the quiet hours after the museum lights fade and the heavy doors of Collins Barracks, or the Dún Uí Choileáin, are locked, something old stirs within its stone walls. Long before it became home to the National Museum of Ireland, Decorative Arts and History, this complex was the heart of military life in Dublin. Built in 1702 as the Royal Barracks and later renamed for Michael Collins, Commander in Chief of the Irish Free State Army in 1922 and said to be haunted by its military past.

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From the days of the British garrisons to the handover in 1922, countless soldiers have lived, fought, and died within its vast parade grounds and echoing corridors. With such a long and turbulent past, it is no wonder the place is whispered to be haunted.

Source

The Ghostly Soldiers of the Royal Barracks

Visitors and night guards have long reported strange happenings in Collins Barracks. The heavy tread of unseen boots marching through the courtyards. The sound of horses snorting and hooves striking stone where no stables remain. Ghostly gunshots ringing out in the distance, fading into silence. Some truck drivers have even claimed to have seen spectral soldiers in Napoleonic uniforms, their faces pale beneath the moonlight as they patrol the grounds as if still under orders and burying the dead in Croppie’s Park. 

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The most famous of these ghostly figures is said to be the Quartermaster, a British officer from the First World War who lingers in the east wing, now mostly used for storage. He appears solid at first glance, standing watch with military precision, before vanishing into the cold air.

The Phantom March of 1925

The haunted reputation of Collins Barracks is not a modern tale. The Christmas 1925 edition of the Irish Army newspaper An t-Óglach printed a curious story told with a mix of humor and unease, making you wonder about the truth of the experience. 

According to this story, an Irish Army officer on night duty claimed to see ranks of ghostly British soldiers assembling in the courtyard, preparing to march away. As he watched in stunned silence, the phantom legion fell into step and vanished toward the gates, “returning to Blighty” to join their comrades in the afterlife.

Source

It was written as a lighthearted tale, but the story spread quickly through the ranks. Some dismissed it as fiction, while others quietly admitted they too had felt something strange in the barracks after dark.

The Singing Woman Haunting Collins Barracks

Another phantom tale comes from the writer, Gillian o’Brien in the book: The Darkness Echoing when visiting the museum. In the book there is a clattering of metal and the voice of a woman singing. The book then details that the barracks are also haunted by the ghost of a young woman from the eighteenth century. This was when it was a British military barracks, and she attended a party hosted by some young officers.

She fell from a window and died from her injuries, but before she died, she told the doctor that the officers had pushed her. No one was ever charged with her murder, and her ghost is said to walk the corridors seeking justice.

The Haunted History Beneath the Museum

When the barracks was finally handed over to the Irish Free State, the soldiers of the past may have remained. The name changed from Royal to Collins Barracks, but the echoes of centuries did not fade.

Today, as visitors wander through the museum halls filled with history and art, few realize they are walking through one of Dublin’s most haunted sites. The creak of a door, the faint ring of metal, or the murmur of unseen voices may just be the lingering spirits of the men who once served here, still keeping watch long after their duty ended.

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5 Haunted Ireland Military Bases | Spooky Isles

“What about the ghosts?’ I asked”… an extract from ‘The Darkness Echoing’ | Ghost Stories of Ireland – Seeking Tales of the Unexplained | Our Irish Heritage 

Haunted Pasts: Exorcising the Ghosts of Irish Culture | SpringerLink

Dublin Ghosts, Folklore and Forteana

Collins Barracks, Dublin – Wikipedia

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Darkey Kelly: The Green Lady of the Liberties

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Was she a Witch or Serial Killer with connection to the Hellfire Club that her legends paint her to be? What was the true story behind Darkey Kelley, said to haunt Dublin as the Green Lady of the Liberties.

In the twisting lanes of Dublin’s Liberties, there is a tale whispered even now on misty nights. At the bottom of the 40 steps leading to St. Audoen’s Church, an apparition sometimes appears of a woman shrouded in green light, her form wreathed in fog. She drifts silently before vanishing into the old stone wall as if swallowed by time itself. 

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Locals call her The Green Lady. Many believe she is the restless spirit of one of Dublin’s most infamous figures: Darkey Kelly.

The Life and Death of Darkey Kelly

Dorcas “Darkey” Kelly lived in 18th-century Dublin, an innkeeper and madam who ran the Maiden Tower brothel near Fishamble Street. A pub on Fishamble Street, near where her brothel once stood, is named Darkey Kelly’s.

The tavern was said to attract the city’s most powerful men, including members of the notorious Hellfire Club, a society of Dublin’s elite who indulged in blasphemy, debauchery, and whispers of occult rituals. Among her patrons was Simon Luttrell, the Sheriff of Dublin and a reputed Hellfire Club member who had the nickname “King of Hell”.

According to legend, Darkey and Luttrell were once close, perhaps even lovers, until a bitter feud erupted between them. Some stories claim she accused Luttrell of fathering her child, a scandal that threatened his reputation. Others say she discovered something dark about the club’s rituals — something she was never meant to know. Whatever the truth, Luttrell turned on her, accusing her of witchcraft and infanticide.

In 1760, Darkey Kelly was tried, found guilty, and sentenced to death of killing the shoemaker John Dowling by partial hanging and burning at the stake at Gallows Road, now called Baggot Street. She was publicly burned at the stake on St. Stephen’s Green on January 7th. 

An account described her execution like this:

She was placed on a stool something more than two feet high, and, a chain being placed under her arms, the rope around her neck was made fast to two spikes, which, being driven through a post against which she stood, when her devotions were ended, the stool was taken from under her, and she was soon strangled. When she had hung about fifteen minutes, the rope was burnt, and she sunk till the chain supported her, forcing her hands up to a level with her face, and the flame being furious, she was soon consumed. ~ Edward Cave, 1773

Legends After her Death

After her death, her prostitute friends collected, or rather stole her remains, and held a wake for her on Copper Alley, however, the 13 women were arrested for disorder and sent to Newgate Prison for it. 

Newgate Prison

There were many legends and stories about her burning. For posterity, people believed that she was in fact burned at the stake as a witch, not on a murder charge. Witnesses said she screamed curses as the flames rose, vowing vengeance on those who condemned her. 

Another legend was that she became pregnant with the child of Dublin’s Sheriff Simon Luttrell, 1st Earl of Carhampton, a member of the Hellfire Club and probable client of Kelly’s Maiden Tower. She demanded financial support from him. He responded by accusing her of witchcraft and of having killed their baby in a Satanic ritual. The body was never found. Darkey was then burnt at the stake.

A 1788 account in the World newspaper claims that her brothel was investigated by the authorities and that investigators then found the corpses of five men hidden in the vaults. One of them was thought to be Surgeon Tuckey’s son, who went missing and had never been found.

However, this does not appear in any contemporary account of her trial and execution and appears to be a later embellishment. So how accurate this investigation was, is rather dubious.

The Hellfire Connection

Darkey Kelly’s ties to the Hellfire Club deepen her legend and has perhaps even overshadowed it. The infamous group met in the Dublin Mountains at Montpelier Hill, a site already steeped in dark lore. It is said that Darkey supplied women for the club’s meetings, unaware of the darker rituals that took place there. Some tales even claim she witnessed a summoning gone wrong like that she saw the Devil himself.

Read the whole story about the Hellfire Club in Dublin: The Hellfire Club on Montpelier Hill and The Killakee Dower House in Dublin and the haunted mysteries connected to the club.

Whether she was a victim of vengeance, a scapegoat for the sins of powerful men, or something more sinister, the truth remains shrouded in shadow. The Hellfire Club’s reputation for corruption and cruelty only strengthens the belief that Darkey Kelly’s fate was one of betrayal and injustice.

Montpelier Hill: Here from the hunting lodge at Montpelier Hill in Dublin, where the Hellfire Club had meetings and many of the stories of dark rituals and the likes comes from. //Source: Joe King/Wikimedia

Was the father of her alleged child one of the members of the Hellfire Club? Darkey had contested a trial on the grounds that she was pregnant. After it was found that she was not with child by a jury of midwives, she was sentenced in January 1761. Had she even been pregnant? Perhaps the two parts of Dublin’s darker history have merged because of the mysterious and dark aspects?

The Haunting of the 40 Steps

Centuries later, her ghost is said to linger near St. Audoen’s Church, close to where she once lived. Those who have seen her describe a woman in tattered skirts glowing faintly green, her face both sorrowful and fierce. She appears at the bottom of the ancient stone steps, drifting upward before fading into the wall itself.

She is also said to have been seen walking down Fishamble Street towards Copper Alley. 

For some, she is a tragic spirit  who was wronged, burned, and forgotten as a human where another legendary figure took her place. The additional torture for her execution were certainly not something a man would go through for the same crime as he would only be hanged until death. For others, she is a reminder of the cruelty that hides behind respectability and power. Either way, her story lives on, whispered through the cobbled streets of the Liberties.

When the fog thickens and the church bells toll midnight, take care walking near the 40 steps. The Green Lady might be waiting there, her eyes glowing faintly in the dark, keeping watch over the city that condemned her.

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Darkey Kelly – Wikipedia

Dublin’s most-haunted – the city’s five most famous ghost stories | Irish Independent

Darkey Kelly: Witch, Killer or Ghost? | Fringe Rebels

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Davy Byrne’s Pub: The Ghost of James Joyce Still Raising a Glass

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Said to appear in the mirror of his favorite place for a pint in Dublin, the ghost of James Joyce is rumored to still linger in Davy Byrne’s Pub. 

In the heart of Dublin’s literary quarter stands one of the city’s most famous pubs, Davy Byrne’s, where polished wood, gleaming mirrors and a literary history draws people from near and far. Some even say that some stay after their death. 

Read More: Check out all ghost stories from Ireland

For more than 125 years, this elegant public house has been a gathering place for writers, rebels, and thinkers. Yet behind its warm glow and literary fame lingers a story of something spectral. They say that James Joyce himself, the master of Dublin’s soul, never truly left the place that helped make him immortal.

Source

A Pub of Poets and Patriots

First opened in 1889, Davy Byrne’s Pub quickly became a cornerstone of Dublin’s social life. The upstairs rooms were once used for clandestine Republican meetings, with none other than Michael Collins himself said to have gathered here in secret during Ireland’s struggle for independence. The pub became a crossroads of revolution and intellect, where whispers of rebellion mixed with the smoke of pipes and the clink of glasses.

But while politics left its mark on these walls, literature would make the pub eternal. James Joyce, who frequented the establishment in the early 1900s, captured its spirit in his masterpiece Ulysses, where Leopold Bloom famously orders a gorgonzola sandwich and a glass of burgundy at Davy Byrne’s. That passage ensured that the pub’s name would live forever, etched into the pages of one of the greatest novels ever written. Joyce also mentioned the pub in the short story “Counterparts” in Dubliners as a bar visited by the office clerk protagonist named Farrington following an altercation with his senior at the office.

The Writer Who Never Left

Book fans travel long distances to visit the place and The pub is particularly popular on Bloomsday, an annual 16 June celebration of both the book and James Joyce.

Regulars and staff will tell you that Joyce still lingers here. His image, they say, appears in the bar’s ornate mirrors, watching quietly from the corner as if observing his characters come to life once more. Some claim that his reflection moves independently, tilting its head or raising a glass, even when no one is standing nearby.

The Ghost of a Writer: James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (born James Augusta Joyce[a]; 2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contributed to the modernist movement and is regarded among the most influential and important writers of the 20th century.

A few have even reported hearing the faint scratch of a pen on paper, or the ghostly murmur of a man reciting words from memory. Whether it is the echo of Joyce’s creative spirit or a trick of the mind, no one can say for certain.

Between Literature and the Beyond

For some, it makes perfect sense that Joyce would haunt Davy Byrne’s. The pub was his muse, a place that embodied Dublin’s wit, melancholy, and vitality. Perhaps his spirit simply returns to where the city felt most alive to him. Or perhaps he lingers to see if his words are still spoken, if readers and wanderers still come to trace the path of Ulysses.

Today, Davy Byrne’s remains one of the most beloved pubs in Dublin, where tourists and locals alike gather to taste a pint and a slice of literary history. Yet those who know its story may pause before the mirrors, half-expecting to glimpse a familiar figure in a dark coat and round spectacles smiling faintly back.

If you do, raise your glass. It might just be that James Joyce has come back for one last drink in the pub he never could forge

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Davy Byrne’s pub – Wikipedia

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The 10 most haunted pubs in Dublin | The Irish Post

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The Black Church: Where the Devil Waits in Dublin

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A church with the sinister name The Black Church in Dublin has a legend that claims if you follow the ritual, you will be able to summon the devil. 

In the quiet streets of Dublin 7, where old stone and shadow mingle, there stands a building that has said to hold the power to summon the devil. Surprising enough, it is a former church and chapel. 

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St Mary’s Chapel of Ease, better known as The Black Church, is built of dark calp limestone that seems to drink in the light. When it rains the limestone takes on a dark hue when getting wet, hence the name it was given. Once a place of worship, it now serves as offices, yet few locals can walk past it after dark without glancing over their shoulder. The reason is simple: the devil is said to dwell here.

Source

The Church of Shadows

Built in 1830, protestant chapel, The Black Church was designed to serve parishioners who lived too far from St Mary’s on Marlborough Street. It even has a mention in James Joyce’s Ulysses. Over the years, however, its eerie appearance earned it a far darker reputation. The rough, blackened stone gave the building a funereal air, and as the decades passed, stories began to grow about strange whispers, cold drafts, and the feeling of being watched even in daylight.

Source

When the church was deconsecrated in the 1960s, many claimed it was not just falling attendance that led to its closure, but something more sinister. Some even said that during its final service, the candles flickered violently and the air turned ice cold as if something within the walls had awoken.

Summoning the Devil

Every haunting has its ritual, and The Black Church has three. Locals whisper that there are only three ways to summon the devil himself.

  • One version says you must run around the church three times at midnight, your footsteps echoing on the empty street.
  • Another insists you must walk around it in reverse exactly thirteen times without looking away from the building.
  • The final, and perhaps most blasphemous, claims that if you stand before its door and recite the Our Father backwards, the devil will appear before you.

No one admits to trying all three. Some say a student once dared to, only to vanish without a trace, his friends finding his shoes by the entrance the next morning.

A Warning in Stone

Though time has softened its purpose, The Black Church remains one of Dublin’s most enduring legends. Whether or not the devil ever walked its grounds, its stones hold a strange gravity that draws the curious and the foolish alike.

If you ever find yourself near St Mary’s Place on a still night, take care. You may feel tempted to test the legend, to run around its walls or whisper a forbidden prayer. But remember the warnings of the locals and those who call upon the darkness at The Black Church may find that it answers.

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The Haunting of Hendrick Street: Dublin’s Most Cursed Corner

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In the dark Hendrick Street in Dublin, there once were two houses said to be some of the most haunted ones in town. Occupied by at least six ghosts, some say they still linger in their old street. 

In Smithfield, Dublin, once stood a narrow, unassuming street that locals long avoided after dark. Not much was known about the street between the corn and cattle market of the city. Hendrick Street, now mostly vanished from the map, was for generations whispered about as Dublin’s most haunted street where more than one house had a haunted story.

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Though the old Dutch Billys houses from the 1730s were demolished in the 1960s, the ground where numbers 7 and 8 once stood is said to remain restless and was the worst location for the haunting going on in the street. The stories claim that no fewer than six spirits are bound to this cursed patch of land, forever replaying the tragedies that once unfolded behind its doors.

The Six Ghosts of Hendrick Street

The haunting of Hendrick Street began long before the bulldozers came. In the 18th and 19th centuries, the area was densely packed with tenements, where poverty, sickness, and despair clung to the air like a fog. Numbers 7 and 8 were said to be especially ill-fated. This is said to have especially been from the 1920s and leading up to the house’s demolitions. 

By the turn of the 20th century, Hendrick Street’s reputation had darkened beyond repair. Residents spoke of six distinct apparitions that haunted the adjoining houses. 

Tenants rarely stayed long, claiming to hear knocking on the walls at night, furniture moving by itself, and cold hands brushing against their faces in the dark. It was especially inside number 7 and 8 in the street that people were bothered by ghosts.

The Dark History of Number 7

One story in particular tells about a family who moved into number 7. An old house where many people had lived and died. It isn’t really specified exactly when this family moved in, but it is more likely to be from the early to mid 20th century. When they arrived they were warned to not go downstairs after dark. Apparently a woman had died in the house and was heard walking up and down the stairs from midnight to the clock struck five, every night. 

The father of the house came home one evening and couldn’t unlock the door. He heard someone coming running down the stairs inside and the door flew open. But when he looked inside, there was no one there, and he only felt the sensation of a cold wind passing him by. 

The Ghost by the Fireplace in Number 8

In the neighboring house there was an elderly couple living once. According to the story, they hated each other in life, but seemed to be unable to part in the afterlife. After the man, a horrid mad according to the rumours passed, he remained in the house to haunt his wife. 

She hated him so much, she was glad he had died. But one night he came back to shout at her. He was also said to have been lingering by the fireplace. Because of his torment even beyond death, she eventually said to have gotten an exorcism. 

Both number 7 and 8 were said to have been demolished as far back as 1953 because of the poor state of them. 

Hendrick Street No. 15-19

Not only were the two houses on the street said to be haunted, but so were the buildings right across from them as well. It used to be an industrial block that has now turned into a retail outlet. 

According to the rumours, there was a young girl said to haunt the building and would appear in front of people. People walking by would report about seeing faces in the windows of the building when no one was supposed to be inside. 

Dublin’s Forgotten Haunting

Today, Hendrick Street is little more than a memory, yet its ghostly reputation has never faded. In its place, The Hendrick Smithfield Hotel has been built in its place. Although the hotel acknowledges the streets’ haunted history, there isn’t really much to go on in terms of newer ghost stories. It is however still a stop on many ghost tours in the city.  

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Historyeye | Hendrick Street: a slightly unloved Dublin street

The Paranormal Database – Dublin

7 & 8 Hendrick Street, Dublin | Explore Haunted Ireland 

15-19 Hendrick Street | Explore Haunted Ireland