Case file · Haunting
Leap Castle
An Irish tower house in County Offaly, called the most haunted castle in Ireland, with a 'Bloody Chapel', an oubliette and a foul-smelling 'Elemental'.
1909 CE · 53.00, -7.80 · status: legend
The account
The castle was a stronghold of the O'Carroll clan, whose feuds included a priest murdered at his altar. Mildred Darby, a Gothic novelist who lived there, published a 1909 article describing a sheep-sized, rotting-smelling spirit, which fixed its reputation. The castle was burned in 1922 and later restored by private owners.
The sceptical view
Much of the haunting lore comes from Darby, a writer of ghost fiction; bones found in the oubliette are unverified in their date.