History and Haunting of : Leap Castle Roscrea, County Offaly, Ireland “I was standing in the Gallery looking down from 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…its face was human, to be more accurate inhuman. Its lust in its eyes which seems half decomposed in dark 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” By ~ Mildred Darby (1909) Legend has it that since Mildred Darby’s séances in Leap, that this elemental, usually referred to simply as ‘It’, has actively haunted the spot. According to the stories, it was built on a Druidic site. When the OCarrolls 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 OCarroll chieftain murdered his own brother, a priest, for starting Mass too promptly. Hence, the top floor of the castle is called the Bloody Chapel. It was, however, lower down in the castle that It was seen - an elemental force of evil with the head of a sheep and the stench of death. Herewith, a first person account of a visit to Leap: Burnt out during the 1920s, Leaps 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 OCarroll who had them murdered when it came time for payment. Mysteriously, among the bones, workmen also found a pocket watch made in the 1840s. 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 OCarroll 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 who wrote an eye-witness account of the Great Famine in Ireland (The Hunger) was interested in the occult and wrote of her experiences with the Leap ghost in an article for the London Occult Review (1909) She did some innocent dabbling, despite the castles 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..., its 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. 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 Darbys 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 1970s, 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 1990s, the castle was sold to the current owners. They are aware of the castles 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 owners 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? Article by ~irishcultureandcustoms/ Elementals are creatures that dwell within the spirit realm of the elements, that simply means they are here and now but in a far different way than we can comprehend. He further explains, Earth spirits are known as Gnomes, Air spirits as Sylphs, Fire spirits as Salamanders, and Water spirits are called Undines and inside these headings much the same as ghosts you will have layers of others. Barry Fitzgerald Next Article from leapcastle.net/?page_id=41 I saw your eyes fixed upon something above our heads, and the next minute my own eyes were filled by the sight of a Thing in the gallery looking down at us. There was plenty of light from the lamps in the hall and the one above on the wall at the corner of the gallery, for every one of us to see quite plainly the grey-coloured figure about the height of a small grown-up person looking down at us. I wish I thought I could ever forget the sight of that grey figure with dark spots like holes in its head instead of eyes, standing with grey arms folded on the gallery railing looking down at us……………………Then just as he put foot on the gallery, the Thing that he saw there, that we were watching, suddenly faded out of sight. The Thing did not move, only became less and less visible until it vanished. The above account is a good cross reference to the letter Mildred Darby sent to Sydney Carroll. The last appearance of the Elemental were on Nov 25th 1915 and I deduct again last November from the gait of my husband really wild with rage? fright? coming into my room at Midnight to let fly at me for “again dressing up things to try and frighten me.” On the 25th Nov 1915 two of our servants knowing the “master” would be late and that I was driving that afternoon had invited “friends” two soldiers from the Barracks at Birr distant the other side 6 miles. They came rather late and my husband came home early so the visitors had to be kept out of his sight in the lower regions of one of the wings (the Priests House) and were unable to be shown the centre tower – the very lofty hall. At 7.15 my husband and I went up to dress for dinner, my room in extremity of house from kitchens, his dressing room next door to me. Whilst dressing I was startled by a loud yell of terror stricken male and female voices coming apparently from the hall – and ran out to see the cause. My husband was out ahead of me at his heels I passed through corridor of wing and onto the gallery wing rounds two sides of hall. Two lamps on gallery two more in hall below. On the gallery leaning with “hands” resting on its rail I saw the Thing – the Elemental and smelt it only too well. At the same moment my husband pulled up sharply about 10 feet from the Thing, and half turning let fly a volley of abuse at me ending up “Dressing up a thing like that to try and make a fool of me. And now you’ll say I’ve seen something and I have not seen anything and there is nothing to see, or ever was. This last speech without a pause, begun waving one hand at the Thing end up by stalking back to his dressing room still abusing me for trying to give him a fright. As he was speaking the Elemental grew fainter and fainter in its outlines until it disappeared. By the sounds from my husband’s room I judged he was employed as I was myself in preparing an empty spot for our coming dinner. He never made any enquiry as to the yell that called us both out, and from that day to this has not mentioned the incident to me. I heard from our servants that when we went to dress for dinner they had brought their friends just to show them the hall, when all four has suddenly seen and smelt the Elemental looking down at them from the gallery. We all got such a turn, we couldn’t help letting out a bawl then fled to servants quarters where all 4 were very sick. The two maids had letters necessity their going home next day – and they did not return. The account below describes an encounter with the Elemental. The individual has the unfortunate experience to have been attacked during their investigation. 18th June 2002 I travelled to Leap Castle in order to make a show for a local TV network and this was my first time in the notorious castle I had heard so much about. So the show went well but I wanted to try the UV on the camcorder whilst still shooting. I had sensed something down the old access to the battlements earlier and never went down. I climbed the stairs with the camcorder in front, the light from the UV allowed me to see about 6 ft ahead and no more so I climbed slowly. I opened the gothic style door and made my way slowly down the narrow passage, about 10ft in I thought I saw something move and I lifted my head, I could feel something was wrong but I had no idea what. This time with the camera dropped I thought I saw a glow come from around the corner and then it went back in. I stood and studied this for a while and thought it may be a side effect of the UV which can be common, a few steps more and my body was weakening fast, it was a strange sensation. Suddenly this mass of white like mist raced around the corner like a bull, even the rubbish on the floor scattered as it approached at speed. The passage was tight and I turned to my left to try and get out but it was too late, I felt the pain as if something had just pierced under my right rib cage and went all the way through to the back. This startled me a little and we proceeded to arrange shooting in the cellars. The audio refused to tape again in the cellars and I felt really odd, I was sweating heavily and was becoming very weak and drowned in dread. Right after the incident in the tunnel it felt as if a hole in my chest had been punctured on a spiritual level and my life was seeping into the stones. In order to describe it and let the reader understand they would have had to experience a large blood loss sometime in their lives. As they felt the blood drain this weakness would become prominent, other words they were experiencing the onset of death……I was dying. Another first person account of an encounter with the Elemental: 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. Personal encounter with the Elemental 18th June 2006 I looked into the darkness of a corridor that exited the spiral stairway. I became aware of the smell of sulphur. It was as if boxes and boxes of matches had suddenly been lit at once. I looked at my friend who had taken me to visit Leap Castle. He could also smell the sulphur. I stared into the darkness of the corridor and had the impression that a beast like a bear or lion was staring back at me . The tension was rising like a ticking timebomb. My friend then closed the door and said “To let sleeping dogs lie.” Meaning sometimes you just have to leave things alone. He was a friend of Sean Ryan and I certainly did not want to disrespect either of them by stirring up the Elemental. The Elemental has the potential to cause great harm to anyone receiving the brunt of an attack. One belief is that that the Elemental has the ability to alter the atmospheric pressure, generally lowering it. The polarity of atmospheric ions fluctuates and triggers a condition known as serotonin hyperfunction syndrome. This can cause symptoms such as heart palpitations, nausea, vomiting, sweating/chills, tremor, dizziness and fatigue. It has also been seen that skin and hair will have an electrical charge. This theory has been generated over the last 10 years and it is interesting to note similarities between these symptoms to those described by Mildred Darby in the early 1900′s. I felt every hair on my head separate and move. For my flesh all over my body and scalp crept, and every hair on my head stood straight on end. ..the absolute weakness that came over me, the seeming cessation of the pulses of life, the grip in heart and brain, the deadly numbness which rendered me incapable of thought, word or action, when I first saw that awful beast. VIDEOs ABOUT THE Elemental Ghost here > https://youtube/watch?v=UtnNmA5rKBs Leap Castle Ireland Paranormal Investigation With EVP Review > https://youtube/watch?v=8FBhckoG8TM Leap Castle Ghosts > https://youtube/watch?v=hcmPaFfClg0 Today, the castle is owned by Sean and Anne Ryan who acquired it in 1991 and they soon set about converting it into a family home. However, progression of the work was soon brought to an abrupt end when a ladder that Sean was working on seemed to mysteriously move away from the wall causing him to fall with a fractured knee. Later, Sean broke an ankle in another strange accident and the couple began to feel a little unwelcome! Today however Sean and Anne appear to live in a kind of harmony with the ghosts of Leap Castle. Apparently, a few years ago they found the ghost of an old man sitting by an old fireplace in a chair. It is reported that the couple just said a polite “Good Day” to the spectral gentleman and carried on about their business. - paranormal-encounters When youre dealing with what some believe to be an elemental type of activity, youre dealing with something that is purposely trying to avoid you, and at the same time create fear in order to make you leave or sort of push you out of whatever area it is that youve now encroached into. Jason Hawes Photo 1 by theparanormalpost- Photo 2 by Savannah Cox haunted-castles-oubliette Photo 3 by harriganholidays/ Photo 4 by genesisxresearch.wordpress Photo 5 Jennifer Osbornehttps://flickr Photo 6 Leap Castle: The Door Knocker by Wendi E
Posted on: Mon, 21 Jul 2014 17:39:27 +0000
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