Why wait for Halloween? Visit most haunted places in Ireland

From old castles to deserted prisons, the scariest spots on the Emerald Isle

Tullamore, County Offaly

Charleville Forest Castle is so famously haunted that it’s been featured on shows such as Fox's “Scariest Places On Earth” and Living TV's “Most Haunted.”

The Irish castle has been visited by numerous paranormal investigators and psychics, and many of its guests have reported strange happenings in the castle during their stay.

Charleville Castle was built in 1798 for the first Earl of Charleville William Bury and his family. The castle remained in the Bury family until 1963, when Colonel Charles Howard Bury suddenly dropped dead.

Today, a woman named Bridget Vance owns the property and is restoring the castle to its original Gothic Revival beauty.

Castle workers say construction has awakened the spirits of Charleville. They report having heard strange whispering voices and classical music throughout the castle.

Many have also heard the sounds of children playing in a room of the castle that was once the nursery.

According to legend, a little girl named Harriet died a tragic death at Charleville while playing in the stairwell in the early 1800s.

Harriet’s ghost has been seen in the stairwell, and people have said they felt a cold brush of wind brush past them as they descend these steps. The little girl can be heard in rooms around the castle, moving furniture and giggling and talking.

But children aren’t the only spirits to haunt Charleville.

The famous castle is said to have been built on land that was once an ancient druid stomping ground, and the Vance family reports having seen ghostly hooded figures around the castle grounds.

 

5. St. Michan’s Church

Dublin

St. Michan’s in Dublin is famous for many reasons. The church, built in 1095, contains the death mask of the Irish patriot Wolfe Tone and the organ on which Handel practiced his masterpiece “Messiah” before his first performance in Dublin.

The renowned Anglo-Irish philosopher Edmund Burke was christened here, while legendary nationalist political leader Charles Stewart Parnell’s funeral took place here.

But St. Michan’s is well-known for being haunted as well as the home of the Mummies of St. Michan.

The dark church vaults contain remarkably preserved corpses, including those of a 400-year-old nun, brothers and leaders of the 1798 Irish rebellion John and Henry Sheares and a body with severed hands and feet.

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Nster.com