The Paranormal Database

Horse and Rider

Location: Athlone - Clonfinlough Stone
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Stone still present
Further Comments: This stone is carved with scenes which could depict an ancient battle. One legend says that at certain times of the year a horseman manifests and gallops around it. Another story states that a man named Michael will one day find two pots of gold under the stone.

Blue Lady

Location: Athlone - Portlick Castle
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The blue lady is said to have been seen a few times (although the dates are not stated) moving around close to the staircase of the castle. A phantom prisoner is also said to haunt the basement.

Jacky Dalton

Location: Clonmellon - Killua Castle
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: With wild yellow hair, Jacky's ghost still moves around the castle at night. Jacky was a land steward to Sir Benjamin Chapman, though he turned to drink and finally suicide after his employer's death.

A strange little man in red.

Small Man in Red

Location: Delvin - Area around Killough
Type: Fairy
Date / Time: 1908
Further Comments: A little man dressed in red was spotted by children around the area, mysteriously vanishing from the sight of some of the witnesses while remaining visible to others. The local press at the time claimed the entity could have been an escaped monkey, although other people suspected a leprechaun.

Blacksmith

Location: Delvin - Castle Inn (no longer operational)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Haunted by an old blacksmith, the smell of pipe tobacco would often be detected in the inn, even though no smokers would be present (stories which remained after the inn closed). One story claimed the ghost of the smith watched his own funeral procession from the inn as it travelled along the road outside.

Hidden Cave

Location: Delvin - Unknown hill in the area, (off the road to Ballinlough?)
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A secret entrance on the hill leads to a hidden cave which contains treasure, so the story goes.

Cavalry

Location: Kilbeg - Hill in the area
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Cavalrymen sleep upon their horses under this hill. It is said that firing a gun, which is also hidden within the hill, will wake them.

Rochfort's Blood

Location: Kilbride - Dunboden Park Manor House
Type: Legend
Date / Time: 1797 onwards
Further Comments: Lieutenant Commander Robert Rochfort was murdered on the doorstep of his home, possibly in retaliation after executing an innocent man. The bloodstain on the doorstep was said to be impossible to remove.

Robert Rochfort

Location: Kilbride - Roads around Dunboden Park, and Lough Ennell
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Circa 1797
Further Comments: After being murdered at his home, Lieutenant Commander Robert Rochfort took to haunting the roads around his former home. A priest by the name of Father Timothy Shanley encountered the ghost, and after a brief but fierce battle that included holy water and brimstone, Rochfort was banished into Lough Ennell.

A ghostly figure in the grass.

White Lady

Location: Killucan - Knock Shee Ban hill
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The hill was once thought to be haunted by either a woman in white or a fairy.

Frightful Beast

Location: Lough Ree - Waters of the lake
Type: Cryptozoology
Date / Time: Circa 800 AD and twentieth century
Further Comments: One very old story says that a swimmer was torn to pieces by a monster after trying to leave a small island in this body of water. A creature was seen in 1954 by several people while out fishing. One of the witnesses, Georgina Carberry, suffered nightmares weeks after the event. Possibly because of this sighting, Captain Lionel Leslie set out to capture the beast using explosives in the first instance and a long net in the second, but with no success. In 1959, two English fishermen claimed their boat had been pulled around the lough by a creature (they escaped by cutting their fishing line) and in 1960 three clergymen observed a serpent-like beast. More recently, it has been speculated that the lake is home to a giant eel.

Stone Thrower

Location: Muckanagh - Unknown property and nearby bridge
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: 1939
Further Comments: Despite being warned by neighbours, a man took sand and stones from a nearby pit which contained the bodies of soldiers and used the material in his garden. The following day, the stones he had removed were thrown at his house by unseen hands. A holy man was summoned and banished the spirit to underneath a nearby bridge.

Prisoners

Location: Mullingar - Arts Centre
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Post 1998
Further Comments: The prison that once stood on this site had a violent past, and ghosthunters have suggested that this is the source of the strange occurrences reported in the arts centre. Footsteps echo in empty places, doors open and close unaided, and a man (who can only be seen by some people) spotted in the auditorium.

Face

Location: Mullingar - House along Mount Street (currently Golden Hill restaurant)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Post 1846
Further Comments: A ghostly face would be seen gazing from a window, looking towards the site where Brian Seery was hanged for assault - a crime it would later transpire Seery did not commit. The window is now blocked off. Another version of the story says the window turned black to prevent the hanging from being watched.

Rail Employee

Location: Mullingar - Scoutail Bridge (bridge over railway line)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A local story says that the bridge is haunted by a former station employee killed in an accident.

Scarecrow

Location: Mullingar - St Bridget's Ward at St Loman's Hospital
Type: Other
Date / Time: December 2014
Further Comments: A photograph published by the local press that showed a strange face looking out from a window was later identified as a scarecrow left in the room by previous visitors.

Healing Well

Location: Mullingar - St Bridget's Well, Ash Road
Type: Legend
Date / Time: 01 May - 09 May (reoccurring)
Further Comments: It was once believed that drinking from the well for these nine consecutive days in May would result in any disease being cured.

Opening Doors

Location: Mullingar - Westmeath Examiner Newspaper Offices
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: These offices are supposed to be home to figures spotted in empty rooms and doors which open and close unaided.

Knocking

Location: Not known - Emo House (now demolished)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Likely nineteenth century
Further Comments: John Seymour wrote of Emo House in this county being haunted by knocking on the front door and the periodic opening and closing of doors.

Guaire

Location: Rathwire - Hillfort
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Hillfort still present
Further Comments: The warrior and chieftain Guaire is reputed to be buried under this hillfort, guarded a savage hound that will let no one near the body.

Steeple of Fire

Location: Rosdalla - Exact location not known
Type: Other
Date / Time: 30 April, 1054 or 1055
Further Comments: A great steeple of fire manifested in the skies over Rosdalla, remaining for some nine hours. Unidentified black birds emerged from it, swooping down and picking up small animals, dropping them from a great height. One of these birds was huge and plucked an oak tree from the ground. The birds eventually flew off and the tower vanished. Some have said that the event was actually one of the earliest tornadoes documented in Europe.

A ghostly butler stands in a corridor.

Butler

Location: Tullynally - Tullynally Castle
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twentieth century
Further Comments: The butler fell in love with one of the castle's cooks but was rejected. He later hanged himself, though has been seen since, walking around the castle and its grounds. One witness saw a thirty year old Victorian woman standing in a guest room.