Haunted Places in Ireland (51)

Explore 51 haunted places in Ireland — castles, hotels, churches, ruins and more. Every location includes its story and GPS coordinates.

• ⚔️ Cornmarket (The Black Dog Prison) Dublin In the winter of 1788 a black-bristled thing walked upright through the lanes by Christ Church. Dubliners called the beast the Dolocher.
• 🏚️ Hellfire Club (Montpelier Hill) Dublin In the hunting lodge on Montpelier Hill, Dublin's infamous Hellfire Club played cards with a stranger — until someone saw the cloven hooves beneath the table.
• 👻 Loftus Hall Wexford During a card game one stormy night the mysterious guest dropped a card — and Anne Tottenham saw cloven hooves where his feet should have been.
• 🏰 Skryne Castle Meath Lilith Palmerston runs screaming through the upper floor clutching her throat — as on the night Phelim Sellers choked her to death there. 🛏 Book a night here
• 👻 Athcarne Castle Meath In the ruin where James II is said to have slept before the Battle of the Boyne, a hanged soldier sways in the oak and a woman appears with blood on her hands.
• 👻 Aughrim Battlefield Galway On Ireland's bloodiest battlefield, where 7,000 men fell in 1691, a ghostly dog still keeps faithful watch on the spot where his master died.
• ⛪ The Black Church (St Mary's Chapel of Ease) Dublin Walk three times anticlockwise around the coal-black church at midnight, Dubliners say, and the devil meets you on the last circuit.
• 👻 Darkey Kelly's, Fishamble Street Dublin Dorcas Kelly was burned in 1761 after five bodies were found in the cellar of her brothel. The pub bearing her name stands on her old ground.
• 🌲 Feltrim Hill Dublin A black hound with burning red eyes keeps the hillside, and an old woman with a bundle of sticks walks up toward the holy well and never arrives.
• 🛣️ Jones's Road (Clonliffe House) Dublin A robbers' chain stretched across the road in the dark took Buck Jones's head. The white horse still carries him home along Jones's Road.
• 🛣️ Old Bawn, Tallaght Dublin On the anniversary of his death the archdeacon's coach comes up the road behind six headless horses. See it, and you have a year and a day.
• 🌉 Portobello Bridge Dublin A blinding light rises from the lock and disorients whoever crosses in the dark. The old lock keeper is blamed for seven deaths since 1861.
• 🏰 Rathfarnham Castle Dublin Two suitors sealed the girl behind the ballroom panelling and went out to duel for her. Neither of them came back alive to let her out. 🛏 Book a night here
• 👻 Duckett's Grove Carlow A grieving mother called a banshee down upon the Duckett family — and in the burned-out Gothic ruin her wail is still heard before a death.
• 🏯 Castletown House Kildare The card slipped to the floor, and bending for it Tom Conolly saw the cloven hoof in the stranger's boot. The priest drove him up the chimney.
• 🏛️ Rhetoric House, Maynooth Kildare Room number two in Rhetoric House took two seminarians nineteen years apart. It was made an oratory, and no mirror has hung there since.
• ⚔️ Spike Island Cork In the windowless punishment cells the whispering is said never to have stopped — over a thousand convicts died on the island in the famine years.
• ⚔️ Wicklow Gaol Wicklow In the prison once nicknamed "the gates of hell", footsteps, slamming cell doors and the babble of children can still be heard from inmates who were never set free.
• 🛎️ Cabra Castle Cavan By the bridge on the castle grounds an infant is heard crying in the night — the child of the servant girl Sarah, hanged for her forbidden love. 🛏 Book a night here
• 🗡️ Charles Fort Cork The White Lady still walks the ramparts in her wedding gown — the bride who threw herself into the sea after her groom was executed by mistake.
• 🏰 Doonagore Castle Clare Shipwrecked sailors of the Spanish Armada were hanged here in 1588 — and in the sea fog around the tower their figures are said to drift still. 🛏 Book a night here
• 🏰 Drimnagh Castle Dublin Eleanora was forced to marry her cousin while her true love was slain — now she searches for him forever in Ireland's only moated castle. 🛏 Book a night here
• 👻 Dr Steevens' Hospital Dublin For a century Dublin was certain the founder's sister hid a pig's face behind her veil. Her portrait still hangs in the hospital library.
• 🏰 Howth Castle Dublin The pirate queen Gráinne carried off the heir and demanded the gates never close at dinner. An extra place is still laid at table. 🛏 Book a night here
• 🌉 The Lady's Stairs, Ardgillan Dublin The white lady still waits on the bridge for the husband the sea took. On Halloween she is said to throw whoever sees her onto the rocks.
• 🏯 Newbridge House, Donabate Dublin At midnight the gate is heard opening and shutting in the empty park. It is Mr Cobbe driving up to the door behind six headless horses.
• 🏛️ Newman House, 86 St Stephen's Green Dublin Buck Whaley won a wager by leaping from the second-floor window. His figure still paces the same old nightly round down to Cuffe Street.
• 🎭 Olympia Theatre Dublin Dressing room number nine is knocked on when the corridor is empty, and a yellow light drifts past at knee height. Nobody is there. 🛏 Book a night here
• ⛪ St Audoen's Church Dublin The Lucky Stone in the porch glowed in the dark, took human shape, and screamed when workmen tried to break it with a sledgehammer.
• 🏛️ Trinity College Dublin Dublin Junior Dean Edward Ford was shot through his own window in 1734. In powdered wig and gown he still walks at dusk toward Botany Bay.
• ⚰️ Wolfe Tone Square (St Mary's churchyard) Dublin A widow's curse condemned the hanging judge Norbury to unrest. Chains are still heard dragging along the road from Cabra to the graveyard.
• 👻 Barberstown Castle Kildare A cloaked lady sits by the bed in the Katherine Dillon room. She smiles at the guest, rises, and slips out through the closed window. 🛏 Book a night here
• 🏰 Leixlip Castle Kildare When the bean sí is heard keening inside the corridors, a Conolly is to die before the week is out — and she is never seen, only heard. 🛏 Book a night here
• 👻 Kyteler's Inn Kilkenny Alice Kyteler was condemned as a witch in 1324 after four husbands died — she vanished without trace, but they say she never left her Kilkenny inn.
• 👻 Leamaneh Castle Clare Red Mary is said to have pushed unwanted husbands from the windows — and her flame-red hair still flickers in the ruin's empty window sockets.
• 🏰 Killeen Castle Meath The Earl of Fingall always appears in a blue coat and powdered wig. In the library the furniture stands in new places when you return. 🛏 Book a night here
• 👻 Athgreany Piper's Stones Wicklow One Sunday the piper struck up and the girls danced through the Sabbath. They stand in the ring still, and he stands alone outside it.
• ⛪ Glendalough Wicklow Kathleen followed Kevin all the way up to the cliff cave. She lies under the Upper Lake and walks among the ruins as a lady in red.
• 🌲 Powerscourt Waterfall Wicklow In the roar of Ireland's tallest fall a bean sí keens, and among the trees a coachman drives on, avenging a sentence he never earned.
• 🛎️ Ballyseede Castle Kerry Every year on 24 March the housekeeper Hilda is said to appear at the castle hotel near Tralee — guests smell roses as she passes by. 🛏 Book a night here
• 🏰 Belvelly Castle Cork Vain Margaret Hodnett starved her beauty away during a siege — and her mirror-less ghost still polishes the castle walls to this day. 🛏 Book a night here
• 🏰 Castle Leslie Monaghan The very night Norman Leslie fell in France in 1914, he appeared in the Red Room back home at the castle — bathed in a cloud of light. 🛏 Book a night here
• 👻 The Brazen Head Dublin Robert Emmet took the room above the door so he could see his enemies coming. Drinkers say he is still in his corner, watching it.
• 👻 The Bull and Castle Dublin An icy chill sweeps the bar with no door opened and leaves a weight of melancholy behind — the poet James Clarence Mangan walking again.
• 🏛️ Dunsink Observatory Dublin The first Royal Astronomer, John Brinkley, never left the observatory. He still stands in silence at his old meridian instrument under the dome.
• 🏛️ Iveagh House Dublin Every Holy Thursday a cross comes up in a window pane. The servant girl refused a priest and the last rites is still claiming her due.
• ⛪ St Patrick's Cathedral Dublin Captain Boyd's Newfoundland howled after the coffin, lay down on the grave and starved. It is still seen beside his statue inside.
• 🌲 Lough Gur Limerick Beneath Lough Gur sleeps the enchanted Earl Geróid Iarla — every seventh year he rides across the water on a horse shod with silver.
• 👻 Marsh's Library Dublin By night, Archbishop Marsh searches the shelves of his own library — hunting for the farewell note his niece hid inside one of the books.
• 🏰 Ross Castle Kerry Every seventh year at dawn on May Day, the chieftain O'Donoghue rides out of the lake on a white horse — and whoever sees him is promised good fortune for life. 🛏 Book a night here
• 🛎️ The Shelbourne Hotel Dublin At Dublin's grandest hotel, little Mary Masters rattles the pipes on the seventh floor — the girl who died of cholera in 1791 still plays in the corridors. 🛏 Book a night here

FAQ

How many haunted places are there in Ireland?

Haunted Places lists 51 haunted locations in Ireland, each with its story and GPS coordinates.

What are the most haunted places in Ireland?

Among the most notable in Ireland: Cornmarket (The Black Dog Prison), Hellfire Club (Montpelier Hill) and Loftus Hall.

Can you stay overnight at haunted places in Ireland?

Yes — 15 of the haunted places in Ireland are hotels or inns you can book for an overnight stay. The rest are public sites you can visit.

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