Leap Castle

The beginning of the legend of Leap Castle began in the year 1250. It was built by the “secondary chieftains” of the territory, the O'bannon family, who was only second to the O'Carroll family. The castle is located in County Offaly in Ireland.

In 1532, a murder occurred there, and the chapel where it occurred is now known as the Bloody Chapel. Mulrooney O'Carroll, brother of Teige O'Carroll, did not appreciate the way his brother was leading his life, and after one of their frequent battles, murdered him during mass, in front of his family.

An element that lives within the walls was nurtured and created by another heinous act of evil. A hidden dungeon, a small room that had a drop floor was were many people were left and forgotten to die in misery and death. In this small dungeon, people were shoved inside to drop eight feet to where spikes were waiting for them. If you weren't impaled on the way down by the spikes, you were cursed to sit there, slowly starving to death. For those who were fortunate enough to not be impaled, they were further tortured by the sounds of happy voices, cheer, and even worse…the smell of fresh food.

Around the year 1900, when workmen came to clean out the room, they found human skeletons piled up within the walls of the dungeon. It took three full cart loads before they could completely clean out the dungeon. A pocket watch was found within the rubble of bones. It had been made in the 1840's.

Because of all the evil and bloodshed within the walls of the castle, people have avoided the castle at night, for they thought the place was haunted. Being damaged by fire, the castle was boarded up for 70 years or more.

The ownership soon passed over to the Darby's, an English family, in 1659. They turned the castle into their home by making improvements, additions and landscaping. One of the family member's during the 19 th century, preformed “innocent” dabbling in magic there, and that caused the elemental to awaken. It was safe to say the elemental was none to happy.

The elemental is thought as being a ghost that is often malevolent, terrifying, and unpredictable. It was said the elemental is about the size of a sheep, and has a face that wasn't really human, but a bit more inhuman. It also possesses a putrid smell, the smell of rotting flesh.

Ever since the dabbling in magic there, Leap Castle has never been the same. There are many cases of hauntings throughout the castle.

The Darby family left in 1922. Being the home of an English family, the Irish targeted the castle in the struggle for independence. Looting and bombing left the castle a mere husk. The Darby's were driven out.

Leap Castle was sold to the current owners, by an Australian owned the castle for twenty years. The current owners know of the castle's disturbing history, and began restoration of the castle. Two accidents occurred during the restoration process. The first, left the owner with a broken kneecap, and one year after the accident, during continued restoration, the owner was hurt once again when the ladder he was standing on tilted backwards away from the wall, and he reacted by jumping off the ladder as it fell. It resulted in a broken ankle.

Article Source: http://theshadowlands.net/famous/leap.html

Back To Haunted Places