The eerie mansion, which sits exposed on the Hook Peninsula in County Wexford, is now set for an ambitious transformation into a luxury hotel.
The Loftus Hall legend
The legend of Loftus Hall dates back to the 18th century, when Charles Tottenham lived at the huge manor with his wife Anne Loftus and their daughter, also named Anne.
According to local folklore, an unknown man came on horseback on a wild night after his ship was forced to shelter at the nearby Slade Harbour.
The family took him in, before the man spent the following evenings playing cards with the younger Anne.
One night, Anne dropped a card and, when she bent down under the table to pick it up, she saw that the man had cloven hooves where his feet should have been.
As she rose and screamed in horror, the stranger is said to have erupted into a ball of fire before crashing up through the ceiling and leaving a hole that, the story goes, could never be properly repaired.
Anne never recovered, and it is said that she was later kept locked away in an upper room of Loftus Hall.
Loftus Hall.
She stayed there until her death, and some claim that her ghost still wanders the halls of the ‘haunted’ mansion.
A local priest, Fr. Thomas Broaders, was later called in to perform an exorcism.
The Queen who turned away
A huge mansion has stood on the site since 1350, when Redmond Hall was built.
The Loftus family took over in the 1660s and gave the estate its name. The mansion that stands today was built between 1870 and 1871, replacing the older house.
Over the following years, the family poured money into lavish renovations in preparation for a visit from Queen Victoria. However, she never came, with many claiming that the royal declined to visit after hearing stories of the Hall’s haunted history.
Loftus Hall.
The work they had undertaken for her visit left the Loftus family deep in debt, and when the last of the family died in 1890, the estate was sold.
In the decades that followed, the house was run as a convent by the Sisters of Providence, and later as the Loftus Hall Hotel from the 1980s until the late 1990s.
A teenage Eoin Colfer worked there during its hotel days, and the house later inspired Fowl Manor in his Artemis Fowl books.
It also provided the setting for the horror film "The Lodgers".
Ghost tours and a stalled hotel
A promo shot for the ghost tours at Loftus Hall.
In 2011, the Quigley family bought the near-derelict house for €625,000 and opened it to the public, building a thriving tourist attraction around its ghostly past.
Almost half a million visitors came through its doors before it closed in 2020.
In 2022, it was bought for €1.75 million by Paddy McKillen jnr and Matt Ryan’s Oakmount, who set about turning it into a boutique hotel.
After millions were spent on the project, the house was put back on the market in April of last year, with offers of €4 million initially sought.
When the price was cut to €3 million, Meath investor Patrick McDermott moved in to buy it.
What’s next for Loftus Hall?
Loftus Hall.
Mr McDermott has not spoken publicly about his plans. However, according to the Irish Times, plans are in motion to finish the restoration and open the main house as a 22-bedroom luxury hotel.
Alongside the expansive hall itself, the refurbishment is said to also include a further 60 bedrooms and eco pods on the expansive grounds.
The development is expected to see the whole grounds rebranded as the Loftus Estate, with its four-acre walled garden and surrounding land run as a working farm complete with livestock.
Vines for wine, barley for a micro distillery, natural swimming pools and an outdoor spa are all reportedly part of the vision.
If those plans go ahead, it would be one of the first agri-based hotels in the country.
For now, the house remains closed to the public, with no opening date announced.
* This article was originally published on Extra.ie.
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