by Derek Acorah
Recently it has also been claimed that there is a haunted corridor in the castle. It is said that people who walk down it never return.
Thirlestane Castle, Lauder, Berwickshire TD2 6RU; Tel: (01578) 722430; Fax: (01578) 722761; E-mail: [email protected]; Website: www.thirlestanecastle.co.uk.Open Easter–October.
The castle is situated just off the A68 going into Lauder. There is a tea room, gift shop, picnic area and children’s adventure playground and several woodland walks.
NORTHERN IRELAND
Ballygally Castle Hotel, Co. Antrim
Bonamargy Friary, Co. Antrim
Carrickfergus Castle, Co. Antrim
Dobbin’s Inn Hotel, Carrickfergus
The Golden Thread Theatre, Belfast
Grace Neill’s pub, Donaghadee
The Grand Opera House, Belfast
Lissan House, Co. Tyrone
Queen Street, Ballymoney
The River Inn, Londonderry
Springhill House, Co. Londonderry
The Workhouse Museum, Londonderry
Ireland! The home of the legend of the banshee – the dreaded harbinger of imminent death!
It is claimed Ireland has fairies instead of ghosts, but of course this is not true. Memories, energies and spirit presences are as evident in Ireland as in any other part of the world.
There are numerous opportunities for paranormal investigation in the province, not least in the walled city of Londonderry, where I have appeared on stage as part of my theatre tour.
Northern Ireland is indeed as much of a land of ghosts as anywhere else. It has a rich history, and whether you are inland or on the coast there is very much more going on than a paranormal investigator’s eyes can see.
Ballygally Castle Hotel
Ballygally Castle, overlooking Ballygally Bay, was built in 1625 in the style of a French château by James Shaw, an immigrant from Scotland. The walls are five feet thick and an open stream once ran through the outer hall to provide water in case of siege. The castle was attacked unsuccessfully during the rebellion of 1641. It is now said to be one of the most haunted hotels in Northern Ireland.
The most active ghost is Lady Isobel Shaw, who is known for knocking on doors and then disappearing. Her husband locked her in her room and starved her as a punishment for giving birth to a baby girl rather than the son he had hoped for. She jumped out of the window with her daughter in her arms and fell to her death. It is said that the baby’s cries can be heard to this day.
Madame Nixon is another ghost who wanders the hotel corridors and amuses herself by knocking on doors. The sound of her silk dress rustling can often be heard and she has been seen in a room in one of the corner turrets. She lived in the castle in the nineteenth century.
Once two elderly guests booked in at Ballygally Castle Hotel for Christmas. The first night one of the waiters came to their room dressed in medieval costume to invite them to a fancy dress ball. They went down and had a lovely evening dancing with the staff and other guests. The next morning at breakfast they thanked the manageress, but she was horrified. The ball hadn’t taken place and wasn’t due to do so for another two days…
Ballygally Castle Hotel, 274 Coast Road, Ballygally, Larne, Co. Antrim BT40 2QZ; Tel:028 2858 3212
Bonamargy Friary
The ruins of Bonamargy Friary and the surrounding cemetery are situated to the east of Ballycastle in the middle of the town’s golf course on the north Antrim coast. The friary, founded in 1485, was damaged in 1584 when local forces set fire to it while attacking the English. After it was repaired the Franciscans occupied it again until they were banished in 1642. Afterwards it fell into decay.
The friary is said to be haunted by the ghost of Julia McQuillan, the Black Nun, who lived there alone after the Franciscans had left. She is renowned mainly because of her Seven Prophecies. There is some dispute about exactly what they were, but they are said to include boats being made of iron and horseless carriages being introduced as a means of transport. The Black Nun is believed to have been murdered on the steps leading to the upper floor of the friary. According to legend she fell on the thirteenth step, and if anyone treads on that step now, bad luck will come to them. Many people believe that she is buried at the entrance of the church under an unusual circular headstone. But she may not be at rest – several people have claimed that a black figure has been seen leaning over the wall or the archway of the upper floor and sometimes it has even thrown stones down!
Bonamargy Friary is on the A2 half a mile east of Ballycastle, by Ballycastle Golf Links, 2 Cushendall Road, Ballycastle, Co. Antrim BT64 6QP
Carrickfergus Castle
Carrickfergus Castle is a large castle built in 1180 by the Norman John de Courcy after he had overthrown the kings of the north of Ireland. It stands at the head of Belfast Lough and has seen a great deal of military action over the years, being besieged in turn by the Scots, Irish, English and French.
The castle is haunted by a young soldier known as Buttoncap, who lived at the end of the sixteenth century. He definitely seems to have come to a violent end, though there are a couple of variations on how it happened. According to one story, he fell in love with another man’s wife and was killed by him (see Dobbin’s Inn Hotel, page 315). According to another, he was wrongfully accused of the murder of an officer stationed in the castle and executed.
Carrickfergus Castle, Marine Highway, Carrickfergus, Co. Antrim BT38 7BG; Tel: 028 9335 1273; Fax: 028 9336 5190
Dobbin’s Inn Hotel
Dobbin’s Inn Hotel is situated in the heart of Carrickfergus, in the shadow of the castle (see page 314). It is one of the oldest inns in Northern Ireland. It began life as a fortified tower house built by Reginald D’Aubin in the thirteenth century and is now a comfortable modern hotel.
At the time of the Plantation of Ulster under King James I, when Scots and other Protestant settlers were ‘planted’ on estates in Ireland to keep down the unruly natives, the house sheltered Catholics and a priest hole was built so that the priest could escape safely after celebrating Mass. By the seventeenth century the house had become an inn and in the 1660s it was kept by the mayor of Carrickfergus, James Dobbin. In the nineteenth century the building became two town houses and remained that way until it was turned into a hotel in 1946. Early patrons included film star Jack Hawkins and carpet tycoon Cyril Lord.
The ghost haunting the hotel dates from the time of Tyrone’s Rebellion, at the end of the sixteenth century. Maude, the wife of Hugh Dobbin, who owned the house at the time, fell in love with a handsome captain of foot stationed at the castle barracks. When her husband returned from the rebellion and found out, he put them both to death. The lovers are still around today, but still apart – the soldier, Buttoncap, haunts the castle and Maude haunts the hotel.
Dobbin’s Inn Hotel,6–8 High Street, Carrickfergus, Co. Antrim BT38 7AF; Tel: 028 9335 1905; Fax: 028 9335 1905; E-mail: info@dobbinsinnhotel. co.uk; Website: www.dobbinsinnhotel.co.uk
The Paul Jones Lounge Bar, named after the American privateer who engaged his ship with HMS Drake off Carrickfergus Castle in 1778, is a popular bar with a nautical theme and has live music on Friday and Saturday evenings.
The De Courcy Restaurant, furnished in the style of the old Dobyn’s castle, specializes in traditional Irish fayre.
Guests at the hotel are given automatic membership to leisure facilities at the council centre.
The Golden Thread Theatre
The Golden Thread Theatre, Belfast, presents drama, comedy, dance, opera, musicals and a variety of other live performances. It also runs workshops for children and young people.
The theatre stands on the site of a former mill and its ghost may be connected to the mill in some way. She is a small white-haired old lady who has been seen in the auditorium and prop room and is said to move glasses and bottles around late at night in the Pittsburgh Bar next to the theatre.
The Golden Thread Theatre, Brookfield Business Centre, 333 Cru
mlin Road, Belfast, Co. Antrim BT14 7EA; Tel:028 9035 2333 (general), 028 9074 0122 (box office); Fax:028 9074 8025
The theatre has a bar and restaurant seating up to 200 people. Rehearsal space with sound and lighting equipment is available for hire.
Grace Neill’s
Grace Neill’s in Donaghadee is the oldest pub in Ireland. It was built in 1611 and was known at that time as the King’s Arms. Donaghadee was once the main port for both the Isle of Man and Portpatrick in Scotland and gunrunners and smugglers would meet in the pub before putting out to sea. To this day its low-beamed ceiling is built from the old ship timbers.
Grace Neill herself was born in 1817. Her husband John was captain of one of the Donaghadee–Portpatrick mail-packet steamers, while Grace owned and ran the pub herself, which was unusual for a woman at the time. She died in 1916, but her ghost is said to haunt the pub. Staff have found books and glasses scattered throughout the bar and electrical equipment has been known to switch itself on and off for no reason. The shadowy figure of a Victorian lady has even been seen on the premises, but Grace usually makes her presence known by the smell of her pipe! A team of psychic researchers investigated the pub a couple of years ago and photographed orbs of light there. It seems that Grace is still welcoming visitors to her pub.
Grace Neill’s, 33 High Street, Donaghadee, Co. Down BT21 0AH; Tel:028 9188 4595; Fax: 028 9188 4595; E-mail: [email protected]; Website: www.graceneills.com
The pub has an award-winning 80-seater restaurant offering traditional Irish food and many international dishes. There is live music on Friday and Saturday nights and Sunday afternoons.
The Grand Opera House, Belfast
The Grand Opera House, Belfast, first opened on 23 December 1895 and since then has offered a wide variety of entertainment including drama, comedy, opera, musicals and pantomime. During the 1920s and 1930s variety was all the rage and some of the finest performers of the day appeared at the Grand Opera House, including Gracie Fields, who was given a wonderful reception. During the Second World War, the Grand Opera House became a repertory theatre and to celebrate victory at the end of the war the Savoy Players gave gala performances for General Eisenhower and Field Marshal Montgomery. During the 1950s the Grand Opera House was increasingly used as a cinema. It fell into decline, but in the 1970s, following a campaign by the Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, it was listed and soon afterwards the Arts Council of Northern Ireland funded its restoration.
Today the Grand Opera House is thriving and is being expanded and refurbished. An L-shaped site is being developed in the surrounding area which will include an education suite, a 150-seat studio theatre, new foyers, bars, a café, function rooms and improved backstage facilities, including dressing rooms for 100 people and a band room for 60 musicians.
Cast members coming down from dressing rooms on the top floor of the opera house have often seen another face looking in at them as they have passed a round window.
Other members of staff have been spooked by the feeling that someone was behind them when no one was there, especially when crossing the stage. A woman who was alone in the theatre one morning heard something behind her and then looked up to see a figure in a long black robe on the fly floor. When she looked back, it had disappeared.
The Northern Ireland Paranormal Research Association recently investigated the opera house and claimed to have contacted the spirits of Harry and George, who worked there as stage crew in the 1950s, a woman spirit who liked to tidy the place up and the spirit of an electrician.
As one of Belfast’s great Victorian landmarks, the Grand Opera House is rich in atmosphere, entertainment and, it would seem, ghosts!
The Grand Opera House, Great Victoria Street, Belfast BT2 7HR; Tel: (02890) 241919; Fax: (02890) 236842; E-mail: [email protected]; Website: www.goh.co.uk
DEREK’S TIP
Try a spot of scrying. Place yourself in front of a mirror in a dimly lit room. Sit quietly and relax into a state of light meditation. You may well find that your features begin to subtly alter to display the face of a person who was known to inhabit the premises under investigation. Obviously do offer up a prayer of protection before attempting such communication and always ensure that you are not alone but have another investigator with you when you attempt this experiment.
Lissan House
Lissan House, near Cookstown in County Tyrone, shot to prominence when it became runner-up in the 2003 BBC1 Restoration contest. The house had been the Staples' family home for 400 years – the longest occupation by any single family of a country house in Ireland. The Staples established the site in 1620 when they set up an iron works and built houses for their workers. Despite hard times and financial difficulties the Staples never sold the house, which today stands proudly encircled by tall trees on the banks of a babbling river.
There are many spooky stories associated with this much loved and admired house, which is urgently in need of repair. Hazel Radclyffe Dolling – the hall’s last owner and last surviving member of the Staples family – believed that this could only be expected in a house of such antiquity. She had many a tale to tell of strange and unusual happenings, from cold spots to the heavy footsteps of an invisible man plodding around the house at night.
Some people visiting the house have smelt the musty aroma of rose petals and lavender and others have heard the gut-wrenching sobs of a young child. One guest at the house claimed to have walked up to the first-floor landing and found a group of children playing a game. She asked them who they were and what they were doing but they ignored her. They then skipped away laughing down the hall and, to her astonishment, vanished. There were no children present anywhere in the house at that time.
Since the death of Lady Hazel Radclyffe Dolling in April 2006 the land and buildings have been entrusted to the Friends of Lissan Trust.
Lissan House, Cookstown, Co. Tyrone BT80 9SW; Tel: 028 8676 3312; Website: www.staples-lissanhousecookstown.org.uk.
Queen Street, Ballymoney
Queen Street in Ballymoney is said to be haunted by the ghost of George ‘Bloody’ Hutchinson. He was a Justice of the Peace during the 1790s and became a hate figure for the United Irishmen, a group of Presbyterian merchants and tradesmen who wanted radical reform of the Irish Parliament. Their subversive activity led to them being outlawed in 1794, but they formed a secret army and in 1798 rose up in rebellion. Hutchinson and his men summarily executed several of the rebels and, once the rebellion had failed, he arrested many others as they returned to their homes. In Ballymoney itself the houses of the rebels were set on fire and much of the town was burned to the ground.
Hutchinson became something of a legend in his own lifetime and legends have even grown up about his death. It is said that as he lay dying in 1845, aged over 80, the body of one of his victims, Samuel Bonniton, was being exhumed. As the coffin was carried past Hutchinson’s house, the mourners put it down and gave three cheers. This upset Hutchinson so much that he died soon afterwards.
According to another story, however, Hutchinson came to a grim end when he was infested with lice and decided to cure himself by complete immersion in a vat of manure! At his advanced age it was all too much for him and he died during the procedure, either from drowning in the manure or being overcome by the fumes.
Strange events have been reported at his grave and it is said that when the town clock strikes midnight at Halloween if you walk round the grave three times anti-clockwise and then spit, his ghost will rise up from it. However, it is also said that at Halloween Hutchinson’s ghost is to be found walking up and down Queen Street with a ball and chain around its ankles. This is also rumoured to happen every Friday the 13th and on the anniversary of his death.
The River Inn
Each year finds me travelling across the Irish Sea to fulfil theatre engagements in Dublin, Belfast and Londonderry. The Waterfront in Belfast is one of my favourite theatres, but I am always glad to travel across country to Londonderry, stopping along the way to
visit that marvel of nature, the Giant’s Causeway.
Upon reaching Londonderry one of my first ports of call is the River Inn which is located just inside the city walls. This ancient inn still displays part of the original wall, but most importantly, the hospitality is second to none. And to make it even more interesting, there’s a ghost! The young woman walks the short corridor from outside the rest rooms towards the front door. Each time I have visited I have been aware of her presence. One day I will spend a little longer there in an attempt to identify the lady. With Londonderry’s history she is bound to have a very interesting story to tell! Unless, of course, somebody gets there before me!