Leap Castle is considered one of the most haunted locations on earth. It was built in near the town of Birr in County Offaly, Ireland in 1250 by the O'Bannon Clan, then later passed to the O’Carroll family, but the castle has a dark past. In 1516, the Earl of Kildare attacked the castle to gain possession of it. In the process, he nearly demolished the whole structure. The next year, however, the O’Carroll family regained control of their estate.
In 1532, Mulrooney O'Carroll died and his family fought for power of the castle and the land. In what is now called Bloody Chapel, one man disrupted the mass his brother was holding by ramming a sword right through him. It is said that the priest died instantly on the alter, in front of his whole family.
In 1659, the castle passed into the hands of the Darby family, who sold much of the land to pay for the extensive renovations and expansions on the castle. In 1922, during the Irish Civil War, the castle was again burned.
Countless people were imprisoned and executed in the castle after the O’Carroll’s had a victory. During renovations, workers discovered an oubliette, a type of dungeon that people were thrown into to be forgotten. In fact, the word oubliette comes from the French oublier: "to forget.” There were spikes at the bottom of the eight-foot shaft. If the person survived this fall, they were left with corpses of other prisoners, and with a masochistic twist on the part of the builders, could watch people coming and going from the castle through a tiny window. These construction workers were also murdered by members of the O’Carroll family to avoid payment. Around 1900, construction workers discovered this gruesome dungeon and it took three carts to remove the human bones. More grisly was that they found a pocket watch from the 1940s amongst the carnage.
Understandably, most people believe the castle is haunted, and not just by the ghost of the slain Catholic priest. With such a bloody history, how could it not be haunted? Not too long ago, when the castle was empty, people would confess that they saw windows light up, then the light would simply vanish with no explanation.
Mildred Darby was an occultist who is accredited with creating one of the more frightful spirits that roam the halls of Leap Castle: the elemental. In occultism, an elemental is any spiritual creature who is created to accomplish a certain task, as they are also called servitors, fetches and familiar spirits. The latter of which was personified as animal companions in medieval times and were believed by witch hunters to be demons in disguise that would do a witches bidding.
The current, New Age philosophy on elementals was invented by Paracelsus, who described them as embodying elemental forces and personified them with certain mythical creatures:
- Slyph: Paracelsus invented this air spirit to represent air.
- Gnome: A Germanic fairy he used to represent earth.
- Salamander: Medieval creatures that he used to represent fire.
- Undine: Water goddesses described in Homer’s tales used to represent water.
In Leap Castle, however, the elemental was the embodiment of all the misery and woe that occurred in the castle walls. Her description of the creature was submitted to the Journal Occult Review in 1909:
"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 guanting shadowy, it's face was human, to be more accurate inhuman. Its 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."
In the 1970s, an Australian bought the castle and employed a Curanderismo (a spiritual healer) from Mexico to exorcise the estate. The woman spent most of her time in the Bloody Chapel convincing the heinous spirits to be benevolent, which they apparently agreed to.
In the 1990s, the current owner, traditional Irish musician Sean Ryan bought the castle and began restoration. People love to circulate rumors about the few mishaps that occurred while he was working, blaming the mischievous spirits for all the accidents.
On November 15, 2006, Leap Castle was featured in an episode of the reality television show Ghost Hunters.
