Leap Castle most haunted castle in Ireland

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Leap Castle
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Leap Castle is an Irish castle in County Offaly, about 4 miles north of the town of Roscrea on the R421. It was built in 1250 by the O'Bannon family and was originally called "Leim ui Bhanain," or "Leap of the O'Bannons." The O'Bannons were the "secondary chieftains" of the territory, and were subject to the ruling O'Carroll clan.
Leap Castle most haunted castle in Ireland
According to legend Leap Castle was built on ancient Druidic site. When the O'Carrolls came here they had a nasty habit of murdering people and dropping the mortal remains down a hole in the wall - an oubliette - where they promptly forgot about them. One O'Carroll chieftain murdered his own brother, a priest, for starting Mass too promptly. Hence, the top floor of the castle is called the Bloody Chapel.

The Annals of the Four Masters record that the Earl of Kildare, Gerald Fitzgerald, tried unsuccessfully to seize the castle in 1513. Three years later, he attacked the castle again and managed to partially demolish it. But, by 1557 the O'Carrolls regained possession.
Following the death of Mulrooney O'Carroll in 1532, family struggles plagued the O'Carroll clan. A fierce rivalry for the leadership erupted within the family. The bitter fight for power turned brother against brother. One of the brothers was a priest. The O'Carroll priest was holding mass for a group of his family [in what is now called the "Bloody Chapel"]. While chanting the holy rites, his rival brother burst into the chapel plunging his sword into his brother. Fatally wounding him, the butchered priest fell across the altar and died in front of his family.

In 1659, the castle passed by marriage into the ownership of the Darby family, notable members of which included Vice-Admiral George Darby, Admiral Sir Henry D'Esterre Darby and John Nelson Darby. The central keep was later expanded with significant extensions. However in order to pay for these extensions rents were raised and much of the land accompanying the castle was sold. This is one theorised motivation for the burning of the castle during the Irish Civil War in 1922.

Many people were imprisoned and executed in the castle, and it is supposedly haunted by several specters, the most terrifying of these being is a small hunched creature whose apparition is said to be accompanied by a rotting stench and the smell of sulfur. "It" was seen - an elemental force of evil with the head of a sheep and the stench of death.
Leap Castle most haunted castle in Ireland
Not far from there, workers discovered the oubliette, which is a dungeon where people are locked away and forgotten about. There are spikes at the bottom of this shaft, and when workers were cleaning it out, it took them three cartloads to carry out all the human bones at the bottom. A somewhat chilling report indicates that these workmen also found a pocket-watch dated to the 1840s amongst the bones. There are no indications of whether or not the oubliette was still in use in that period. These series of spikes are now covered with a vast amount of twigs, grass, and dirt, as to protect anyone entering it.

The castle is under the ownership, since 1991, of Sean Ryan, a traditional Irish musician, who is undertaking restoration work.
The castle was featured on the cover of several editions of the novel The Riders by the Australian author Tim Winton.

What follows is a personal account and video of a visit to Leap Castle
"Burnt out during the 1920s, Leap's looks lived up to its reputation. Narrow Gothic windows, ivy covered towers, bats and a barn owl, it was like a set from a Vincent Price movie. We crept in through the gaping doorway. Our flashlights revealed a huge hole in the stone floored front hall and we gingerly made our way around the edge, heading for the spiral staircase. No ghost would make us nervous - we were the Dublin Ghost Busters! Despite our confidence, we found ourselves talking in whispers. A slight sound behind me and I spun like a ballerina to see the cause. But as I spun around. I slipped and then dropped through the hole in the floor. The flashlight hit a rock and went out. Just above me, just out of reach, I could see the jagged outline of the floor. I could hear friends coming to help me. And then, in the darkness, I could hear a sniffling snorkly sort of noise. There was a smell, too. A horrid, rotten smell. I am not athletic, but that night, terror put rockets into my heels. I shot upwards. Scrabbling madly I made the doorway and did not stop running till I was safely in the car. That was nearly twenty years ago. Since then various psychics have attempted to purge the place. Priests have said masses there, a medium has planted a special tree there. The last time that I visited it, the castle was being restored and much of the evil atmosphere had gone. Only that small, windowless room underneath the castle still had that sinister feel."

That small, windowless room was the final resting place for scores of victims who were intially locked in a hidden dungeon off the Bloody Chapel. This room had a drop floor and prisoners were pushed into the room where they fell to their deaths - either impaled on a spike below, or if they were unfortunate enough to miss the spike and die a quick death, , they slowly starved in the midst of rotting, putrid corpses.

Around c.1900, workmen who were hired to clean out the windowless room discovered hundreds of human skeletons piled on top of each other. It took three full cart loads to remove all of the bones and one theory is that some of the remains were those of Scots mercenaries hired by O'Carroll who had them murdered when it came time for payment. Mysteriously, among the bones, workmen also found a pocket watch made in the 1840's. Could the dungeon still have been in use back then? No-one will ever know.

Shortly after the gruesome discovery in the dungeon, playful dabbling in the occult may have caused the re-emergence of the evil spirits. In 1659, ownership of Leap Castle passed in marriage from the O'Carroll family to an English family, the Darbys. The Darby family turned Leap into their family home, with improvements and additions and landscaped gardens. In the late 19th century, descendants Jonathan and Mildred Darby, were looking forward to raising their family here. The occult was the fashion of the day, and Mildred Darby did some innocent dabbling, despite the castle's history and reputation for being haunted.

In 1909, she wrote an article for the Journal Occult Review, describing her terrifying ordeal. "I was standing in the Gallery looking down at the main floor, when I felt somebody put a hand on my shoulder. The thing was about the size of a sheep. Thin, gaunt, shadowy..., it's face was human, to be more accurate... inhuman. It's lust in its eyes, which seemed half decomposed in black cavities, stared into mine. The horrible smell one hundred times intensified came up into my face, giving me a deadly nausea. It was the smell of a decomposing corpse."

The spirit is thought to be a primitive ghost that attaches itself to a particular place. It is often malevolent, terrifying and unpredictable. The Darbys remained at Leap until 1922. Being the home of an English family, it became the target of the Irish struggle for independence. Destroyed by bombs and completely looted, nothing but a burned out shell remained. The Darby's were driven out.

Totally gutted, Leap Castle was boarded up and its gates were pad locked for over 70 years. Locals have described seeing the windows at the top of the castle "light up for a few seconds as if many candles were brought into the room" late at night.

The castle lay in ruin for decades. But then, in the 1970's, it was purchased by an Australian, who had a white witch brought in from Mexico to exorcise the castle. She spent many hours in the Bloody Chapel and when she emerged, she explained that the spirits at Leap Castle were no longer malevolent, but they wished to remain.

In the 1990's, the castle was sold to the current owners. They are aware of the castle's troubled history. Shortly after moving in, they began restoration of the castle. However, a "freak accident" left the owner with a broken kneecap which delayed restoration work on the castle for nearly a year. One year after his "accident", the owner was back at work when the ladder he was standing on suddenly tilted backwards away from the wall causing him to jump to the ground. The result was a broken ankle and more delays with the restoration. The owners say they would be happy to share the castle with the spirits as long as there are no more "occurrences".

Recently, the christening of the owner's baby daughter took place in the Bloody Chapel. For the first time in centuries, the castle was filled with music, dancing, laughter, and most of all love. To quote those in attendance, it was a "happy, pleasant, wonderful day".

Have the troubled spirits of Leap Castle finally found peace? Assuming they haven't left, one can only hope they have.

Spiritual mediums and ghost hunters head to Ireland.
Jason and Grant head to Ireland to investigate Leap Castle, considered by many to be one of the most haunted places in the world. One of the spirits in the castle is an "elemental" that was supposedly summoned by dark arts, and is reported to be hostile and perhaps even deadly.

Warning do not watch if you are scared of ghosts.

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Leap Castle most haunted castle in Ireland

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