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County Dublin Ghosts, Folklore and Paranormal Places

Waiting Lady

Location: Balbriggan - Ardgillan Castle, bridge in garden over railway known as The Lady's Stairs
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 31 October (reoccurring)
Further Comments: This phantom woman is said to be waiting for her husband to return. He was a keen swimming, but drowned one night, leaving his wife on the bridge awaiting his return. One version of the story says that whoever sees the ghost on Halloween will be picked up and thrown into the ocean.


A strange green cat.

Green Cat

Location: Balbriggan - Exact location not known
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1996
Further Comments: A phantom cat, green in colour, was reported to haunt this town.

Yellow Eyed Dog

Location: Balbriggan - Unidentified estate road
Type: Shuck
Date / Time: Circa Christmas 2021
Further Comments: A witness watched a large black dog with yellow eyes cover eighteen metres in just three strides. Over the following two months the witness lost two members of their family.

Apologise to the Tree

Location: Belfast - Ormeau Golf Club
Type: Fairy
Date / Time: Tree still present
Further Comments: If the fairy tree found near the course is hit by an errant golf ball, the player is advised to apologise to avoid the wrath of the little people. Even if not struck, it is said that golfers nod at the tree as they pass. Just in case.

Nun

Location: Blanchardstown - Former monastery converted into a home
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Late nineteenth or early twentieth century
Further Comments: A servant was said to have encountered a phantom nun within this house. Footsteps would also be heard, while doors would open themselves at night.

Coach and Four

Location: Clondalkin - Newlands House, currently part of the Newlands Golf Club
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Newlands was once owned by Arthur Wolfe, Chief Justice of Ireland; the ghostly coach is said to follow the route it once took, taking Arthur's body away from his home.

Mr Cobbe

Location: Donabate - Newbridge House and park
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The ghostly Mr Cobbe drives his coach drawn by six headless horses close to the park. One version of the story says he is no longer seen, but the phantom's presence is marked by the sound of a gate opening and shutting.

Butcher

Location: Dublin - 118 Summerhill (no longer standing)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Early 1966
Further Comments: Unease spread amongst workmen in the process of demolishing the house after they spotted a spectral butcher moving around the rooms. The ghost had previously been reported in two other houses along the road which had already been knocked down.

Woman

Location: Dublin - 13 Henrietta Street
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twentieth century
Further Comments: Now thought to have been exorcised, this phantom woman wearing old fashioned clothing was seen by neighbours looking in through the window.

Footsteps

Location: Dublin - 7 and 8 Hendrick Street (demolished 1963)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1950s
Further Comments: Starting in the 1920s, and lasting for a period of around thirty years, occupants in number 7 reported hearing shoeless footsteps which traversed the rooms and corridors. Number 8 was haunted by a man seen standing by the fireplace.

Shadows

Location: Dublin - Applerock Studios
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2010s
Further Comments: Investigated by GhostEire, the site located in a former red light district is home to shadowy people and an unidentified voice picked up on recording equipment.

Shaking

Location: Dublin - Ardee House (demolished mid twentieth century)
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: Early twentieth century?
Further Comments: A bedroom in this property was considered particularly haunted, with occupants being violently shaken awake.

Archdeacon Bulkeley?

Location: Dublin - Area around Old Bawn Road and the Dodder
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 08 September (reoccurring)
Further Comments: Said to either be driven by or containing Archdeacon Bulkeley, a coach drawn by six headless horses containing two passengers together with two footmen, drives through this area of Dublin. Anyone who spots the coach is said to die within 366 days.

Robert Emmet

Location: Dublin - Brazen Head public house
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Rebel leader Robert Emmet is said to have used the Brazen Head for meetings until executed in 1803. His ghost is said to remain, still on the lookout for enemies.


A ghostly black dog in the snow.

Lord Norbury

Location: Dublin - Cabra district
Type: Shuck
Date / Time: Winter (reoccurring)
Further Comments: The otherworldly black hound which stalks the area is said to be the ghost of Lord Norbury, a harsh judge renowned for his overuse of the hangman's noose.

Old Lady

Location: Dublin - Canal through Drimnagh
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1992, 02:00h
Further Comments: A cyclist riding along the canal witnessed a glowing elderly woman in white with long hair dancing with a young man. The man wore a seventeenth or eighteenth century military uniform and looked 'normal', unlike the woman who also hummed a tune. The cyclist did not stop.

James Clarence Mangan

Location: Dublin - Castle Inn, Lord Edward Street
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Mangan was born in this building and is said to periodically return, his presence bringing an overwhelming depression to the site.

Shuffling Feet

Location: Dublin - Clontarf Castle Hotel
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: September 2010
Further Comments: One guest at the hotel claimed to hear footsteps in his room at night. The man also said that his shower had turned itself on and his TV flicked channels over at will...

Soldier

Location: Dublin - Connolly Station
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2011
Further Comments: A security guard on the night shift spotted a man resembling a soldier wearing grey on the station's CCTV. The guard went to investigate the disused platform where the figure had been seen and found no one there.

Matching Band

Location: Dublin - Corkagh Estate (now Corkagh Park)
Type: Unknown Ghost Type
Date / Time: Easter Monday, 1916
Further Comments: During the Easter Rising of 1916, the family and staff at Corkagh House heard a band playing and the sound of marching feet heading towards the house. Those present thought they would be attacked but the sounds suddenly stopped and nothing could be seen. More recently, the park is reputedly home to a headless horseman and/or the sound of horses hooves' heard along an area known as the 'Devils Passageway'.

Screams of the Drowning

Location: Dublin - Deey Bridge and canal lock
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A passenger boat sunk here in the eighteenth century; many of the occupants drowned, and their psychic screams continue to this day.

Eleanora

Location: Dublin - Drimnagh Castle
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Eleanora's new husband fought her true love, with both men dying for their injuries. After Eleanora died (of either suicide or exposure), her ghost began haunting her home.

Robert Emmet

Location: Dublin - Drummond House (aka Emmet's House)
Type: Other
Date / Time: 1920s
Further Comments: Patrick F. Byrne wrote that the ghost of Emmet could be observed in the garden, although one of Byrne's friends proved the 'ghost' was only a shadow caused by a gate post.


Dublin Castle. Process print, 1904.

Invaders

Location: Dublin - Dublin Castle
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Men who tried to invade the castle were executed on site and their headless remains buried within the grounds. Sometimes their spirits are said to wander.

Knock on Wood

Location: Dublin - Fishamble Street Theatre (no longer standing)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 22:00h each evening (reoccurring)
Further Comments: The Green Room of this former theatre was haunted by phantom rapping, which always started at the same time each evening and lasted exactly fifteen minutes.

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