Vaguely human shapes standing in the bog.
Location: Allen - Bog of Allen
Type: Environmental Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Before a large part of this boggy land was drained, it was renowned for strange shapes, vaguely human in appearance, which appeared at night. One man who walked across the area encountered a strange cloud which enveloped him, filling the poor man with terror, before it drifted off.
Location: Athy - White's Castle
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2006
Further Comments: A ghostly figure has been seen peering out a second floor window of the castle. A few critics pointed out that most witnesses have just left public houses and bars at midnight and may not have been in the clearest of minds.
Location: Ballitore - Rath of Mullaghmast (earthworks and forts)
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Wakes every seven years (date unknown)
Further Comments: The wizard Earl of Kildare reputedly sleeps around this area of forts and standing stones, waking every seven years to ride a horse shod with silver. Some say that while out riding he is accompanied by his men, and that when the horse's silver shoes have worn down, the wizard will banish Ireland's foes from the land.
Location: Ballitore - Village Hall
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1933
Further Comments: On two different occasions, villagers heard drums, brass, and a cornet being played in the village hall at midnight, although the building would be locked and unlit.
Location: Castledermot - Kilkea Castle
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2020s
Further Comments: A stable boy, killed after being discovered in the bedroom of the owner's daughter, still walks around the building looking for his former girlfriend. The castle also carries stories about being haunted by a former wizard who once resided there, who remains in a trance under the structure (although another variation of the story says he returns to the castle every seven years riding a white horse with silver shoes). More recently, a groundsman spotted a woman and a child heading running along the avenue towards the castle - the figures suddenly vanished. Shadowy figures and disembodied voices have also been reported.
Location: Celbridge - Castletown Manor House
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Music circa 1985, others unknown
Further Comments: On two occasions, people clearing up after a party could hear eighteenth century music emerge from one room. Folklore says a spectre dressed in a long grey coat is can be heard laughing mockingly. One legend attached to the building has the Devil paying a previous owner a visit - it is unclear whether the hauntings are connected to this event.
Location: Clane - Clongowes Wood College
Type: Shuck
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The phantom hound with glowing eyes which walked the corridors at night was said by students to be the manifestation of a hanged murderer. The building was also once witness to a Crisis Manifestation, when the ghost of a Marshall appeared to two sisters - they identified him as their brother, who, it was later discovered, was killed in action at the time of the visitation.
Location: Clane - Firmount House
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: October 2017
Further Comments: During a two day paranormal investigation at this location by NIPRA the group believed they encountered a matron who worked with Tuberculosis patients.
Sketch by Franz Marc.
Location: Forenaghts Great - Longstone Rath
Type: Fairy
Date / Time: 31 October 1971
Further Comments: Author Herbie Brennan and a friend visited this site late at night and spotted several small white horses galloping along the earthwork. He described them as being no taller than a cocker spaniel and around 25 in number.
Location: Grangemellon - Grangemellon Castle
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Colonel John St Leger, aka Handsome Jack once owned this castle while a member of the Hellfire Club. After his sudden death in Madras, he returned to the area, in a coach and four, driven by a headless horseman.
A phantom child runs across the road.
Location: Kildare - Road outside Clongowes Wood College
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Several motorists have had to brake sharply to avoid hitting a child who runs out in front of them. The infant always quickly vanishes after the driver stops. The area is also home to a phantom coach which halts at the front gates at midnight.
Location: Kilgowen - Monolith
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Monolith still present
Further Comments: This large stone reputedly moves down to a nearby stream to drink every night.
Location: Kilkenny - Rothe House
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The ghostly footsteps heard around the building may be related to the seven-foot tall figure spotted walking through a doorway and heading towards the Phelan Room. A priest may also haunt the site (or may be the same figure).
The Devil pops up after being summoned.
Location: Leixlip - Conolly's Folly (aka Conolly's Obelisk)
Type: Legend - Old Nick
Date / Time: Still present
Further Comments: A local piece of folklore claims that walking backwards around the structure twelve times results in the Devil appearing.
Location: Lyons Hill - Canal Lock (13th Lock)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Arthur Griffin's poem 'The Thirteenth Lock' may have been inspired by the Lyons Hill's lock, the thirteenth along the Grand Canal, the building of which had displaced an old graveyard.
Location: Maynooth - Aula Maxima (theatre)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Thought to be a projectionist from the 1940s who fell to his death, this phantom is reputed to turn a particular chair around 180 degrees if he dislikes a production.
Location: Maynooth - Maynooth College, Rhetoric House
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Mid nineteenth century
Further Comments: After two students committed suicide in room 2 of the building, and a third leapt from the window after believing an evil spirit was trying to take over his body, someone summoned a priest to spend the night. In the morning the priest was found a gibbering wreck; fear had turned his hair white.
Location: Prosperous - Main Street
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1798 onwards?
Further Comments: A ghost nicknamed Limping Liam hobbles around this area. One story says the body of an unknown man killed in the Irish Rebellion of 1798 was brought to the town on the back of the cart. The body tumbled off the cart and limped a little way along the road before falling and dying again.
Location: Rathangan - Area round Kilnantic
Type: Unknown Ghost Type
Date / Time: November 1955
Further Comments: Richard Mather claimed to have listened to a banshee wail for five minutes sometime after midnight. After the story appeared in the local press, it was suggested had heard a fox.
Location: Sallins - Soldier's Island (small island at conjunction of the Grand Canal and the Naas)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The island is said to take its name from a solider who hanged himself from a tree - his ghost is said to have remained.
Location: Straffan - Former railway track
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1853 onwards
Further Comments: This former rail employee walks along the track carrying a lamp. In 1853 an accident between two trains killed sixteen people; an inquiry blamed the guard who had forgotten to attach a lamp at the rear of the train (which would have prevented the collision). To atone, the guardsman forever walks the rails.