Archives

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

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?

Newest Posts

Dun Dreach-Fhoula – The Blood-Soaked Castle of the Reeks8. June 2026
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 Woman Waiting and Haunting Struten Lighthouse5. June 2026
After being stranded on their little island at Struten Lighthouse in stormy weather with the waves crashing in, a woman succumbed to her illness and has since then been haunting it, still waiting for the help that never came.
The Womanizer of Room 315 Haunting at Sauda Fjordhotel4. June 2026
The once stately Sauda Fjordhotel is said to be haunted by a remorseful colonel, who took his own life when his womanizing ways lost him the love of his life.
The Ghost of the Captain Smith from the Titanic3. June 2026
After the Titanic sank in 1912, people started talking about seeing the ghost of Captain Smith around the world. Even after all these years, his death and afterlife have an air of mystery surrounding it and he has become one of the most well known ghosts from the Titanic tragedy.
The Haunted Legends from Wailua in Hawaii2. June 2026
How big can a haunted area be? Can the whole of Wailua on Kauai Island be haunted? The place certainly seems steeped in tales of Night Marchers and a procession of the dead, making their way down the river to the afterlife.
The Amalanhig: The Undying Hunters of Visayan Folklore1. June 2026
Rising from their graves, the vampiric Amalanhig from the Philippines are after your flesh and blood. But where did these creatures come from?
Doyle’s Pub: The Hangman’s Shadow in Phibsborough29. May 2026
Said to be haunted by the people from the funeral home that used to be next door, the Doyle’s Pub in Dublin is said to have more than living patrons having a drink.
Fredriksten Fortress and the White Lady of Halden28. May 2026
In the bordertown of Sweden of Norway, Fredriksten Fortress has seen more bloodshed than many places. But who is the White Lady said to be haunting it, soaring around the clock tower in the night?
The Haunted Shelbourne Hotel and the Ghost of Mary Masters27. May 2026
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.
Room 407 and the Gentle Ghost of Fleischer’s Hotel26. May 2026
As the first hostess of the hotel in Voss, Norway, the ghost of Magdalene at the historic and majestic Fleischier’s Hotel is said to linger inside of Room 407.
Teresa Prieto The Witch of Jove and Spain’s First Vampire Case25. May 2026
Advertisements Teresa Prieto, known as the Witch of Jove, has captivated the imaginations of many through the centuries as the first recorded case of a vampire in Spain that reached the court. What was she? A witch? A vampire? Or was she one of many innocent women accused of something supernatural. Long before the vampire … Continue reading Teresa Prieto The Witch of Jove and Spain’s First Vampire Case →
Utne Hotel and the Watchful Spirit of “Mor Utne”21. May 2026
In one of the oldest hotels in Norway in the serene Hardangerfjord, Mother Utne is said to still be running things. After working 70 years at Hotel Utne, management at the hotel claims that she is still the one in charge.