Leap Castle

Leap Castle is the former stronghold of the O’Carroll family, widely regarded as the most haunted castle in Ireland. Leap Castle was built by the powerful O’Carroll sept, or clan, the Princes of Ely, who were chieftains in their area of County Offaly. Its bloody history has left it with unpleasant Haunting phenomena. According to lore, a Curse exists upon Leap because of all the evil that has taken place there. Nothing but ill befalls the owners of the castle, which seems to have been borne out by history.

History

The violent events that may have contributed to the hauntings began in the 16th century. The castle was owned by the O’Bannon clan, secondary chieftains to the O’Carroll clan, which obtained ownership of the castle. The O’Carroll clan was renowned for their fierceness and merciless treatment of enemies; these acts extended even to rivals among the clan. In 1532, the O’Carroll chieftain died, and infighting erupted over a successor. Two brothers vied for success. One of them was a priest. One day, the priest was conducting mass for a group of clan members in the 14th-century tower of the castle. The rival brother, One-eyed Tiege O’Carroll, burst in and ran him through with a sword, killing him. The room became known as “Bloody Chapel.”

In another violent event, One-eyed Tiege invited some of his clan rivals to a lavish dinner at the castle. When they had all sat down, O’Carroll had them all massacred. Other enemies met gruesome fates. In one corner of the Bloody Chapel was a secret dungeon called an oubliette, the floor of which was covered with spikes. Victims were hurled through a trap door and left to suffer and die on the spikes. The oubliette claimed countless victims. An underground network of tunnels and secret chambers housed the remains of more victims.

The O’Carroll clan was the last to surrender to the British in the 17th century. Leap passed into the ownership of the Darby clan, when Jonathan Darby married an O’Carroll princess. Darby was a royalist during the Civil War and was known as the “Wild Captain” for his fierce fighting. Legend holds that he accumulated a hoard of treasure, which he hid in the castle with the help of two servants. He murdered them to keep the secret of the location to himself. When the royalists lost the war, Darby was arrested for treason and sent to prison for many years. It is said that he went insane in prison, and upon his release, could no longer remember where the treasure was hidden. Supposedly, it remains hidden to this day.

Skeletons of victims were once found bricked up behind walls in the castle. They were left in place.

In 1922, the castle was burned by an IRA mob while the Darbys were living in England. The mob vandalized the premises and hung the castle’s tame peacocks from meat hooks on the tower. Shocked, the Darbys gave the ruined castle to an old woman, a family retainer. Her life fell on misfortune; she soon died of a gangrenous leg.

The castle was eventually purchased in 1975 by Peter and Mide Gerrard as an investment. After becoming convinced that the castle and the entire area around it were evil, they sold it at a loss. Leap was purchased by Peter Bartlett, an Australian and a member of the O’Bannon clan. Bartlett set out to restore the ruined castle, but soon his health and finances were wrecked, and he died in 1989. The castle is now owned by a trust.

Haunting Activity

The Darbys experienced many unpleasant phenomena during their ownership of Leap Castle. An active room was the state bedroom, avoided by servants whenever possible.

Guests of the Darbys were terrified by an APPARITION of a tall woman dressed in a red gown. She appears with right hand raised in a menacing gesture, as though ready to strike with a weapon. She is thought to be the Ghost of an O’Carroll princess murdered centuries earlier.

Most frightening of all is the Thing, a foul-smelling, horrid apparition that seems to be half human and half ElementAL. It appears on the tower stairs. The Thing is thought to be a Thoughtform created by the violence and gruesome deaths that took palce in the castle over so many years.

Peter Gerrard’s mother, Louise Ashby, was a friend of Cicely O’Carroll-Darby and was once invited to stay overnight in Leap Castle after a dance. She was uncomfortable the entire night and felt as though someone or something was hovering at the end of her bed.

Near Leap is Birr Castle, owned by Lord and Lady Rosse. Birr sits on a site once owned by the O’Carroll clan. Lady Rosse, an archaeologist, believes the area around Leap to be at the Crossroads of powerful ley lines, the energy of which can be manipulated for good or evil. Lady Rosse witnessed an attempted Exorcism of the malevolent ghosts at Leap by a Mexican Medium; the exorcism failed, perhaps due to the retentive influences of the earth energy generated by the leys.

FURTHER READING:

• Jones, Richard. Haunted Britain and Ireland. New York: Barnes and Noble, 2003.
• Marsden, Simon. Phantoms of the Isles: Further Tales from the Haunted Realm. Exeter, England: Webb and Bower, 1990.

SOURCE:

The Encyclopedia of Ghosts and Spirits– Written by Rosemary Ellen Guiley – September 1, 2007