Leap Castle

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Subject: Leap Castle Sun May 25 2008, 20:52

I am going to be starting a series on haunted castles. We are starting with my most favorite, Leap Castle in Ireland. I have included a detailed history of the haunted castle below.

LEAP CASTLE

Location: Roscrea, Ireland

Leap Castle has a violent and turbulent history, a keep castle, it was built in the 14th or 15th century to guard the pass from Slieve Bloom into Munster. This fortress is considered Ireland's most haunted castle, haunted by the type of spirit called an "elemental". It is a frighting and horrifying apparition, it's hauntings bring on an overwhelming sense of dread and deep rooted fear. Those who have experienced it describe a hideous looking "thing" with almost human looking eyes and reeks of the most ghastly odor.

HISTORY:

The Galic name for the castle is "Leim ui Bhanain", which means the Leap of the O'Bannons. Under the O'Carroll Chiefs, the O'Bannon Clan were the first owners of Leap Castle, later occupied by the O'Carroll's themselves. From here the O'Carroll's would set out for victory and defeat, and here they would bring thier brides and there captives.

Leap was an impregnable fortress impervious to attack. In 1513, Leap Castle was attacked by Gerald Fitzgerald , but was not taken. Gerald Og Fitzgerald of Kildore attacked the castle in 1516. In 1557 during an attack led by the Earl of Sussex, the O'Carroll's made a successful escape.

In 1604 or 1605, some of Ely O'Carroll's territory was attached to Kings County which is now Offaly. It is rumored that the daughter of an O'Carroll helped the escape of a Darby from Leap Castle and later married him.

After the failure of the Revolt of the Earls, in 1619 the plantation of Ely O'Carroll took place. Along with the English rulers, loyal Protestant Scots and Englishmen settled into the area depriving the local Galic population of their land. Leap Castle then passed into the hands of the Darby family. After this many Darbys became high sheriff of Kings County. The most famous Darby is Admiral Sir Henry Darby who fought at the Battle of the Nile and escorted Napolean Bonaparte into exile after leaving France.

THE ELEMENTAL:

Over 400 years ago in what is now known as the "Bloody Chapel" a shocking murder occured. Leap Castle was then a stronghold of the O'Carroll family, powerful Irish Princes, Chieftains of the area.

In 1532, on the death of the O'Carroll Chieftain, a fierce rivalary for the leadership errupted within the family. The bitter fight for power turned brother against brother. One of the brothers was a priest. The O'Carroll priest was holding mass for a group of his family (in what is now called the "Bloody Chapel"). While chanting the holy rites, his rival brother burst into the chapel plunging his sword into his brother. Fatally wounding him, the butchered priest fell across the altar and died in front of his family.

The henious act of brother killing brother and the blasphemy of a sacred mass cut short by such an evil event sent an echo of misery ringing thoughout the castle.

Another source of evil was found at Leap Castle that may have compounded and nutured the spirt of the elemental. A hidden ubliet (a dungeon) was found off the bloody chapel. It was a small room with a drop floor. Those who were forgotten within this room suffered unimaginable pain and misery until their death. Prisoners would be pushed into the room to fall through the floor and land on a spike eight feet below. If you were not lucky enough to die quickly on the spike, you died of starvation in a doorless room while the aroma of food and the sounds of merriment drifted up from the rooms below. A narrow window would let you watch those who came and went in freedom from the castle. Around c.1900 workmen who where hired to clean out the ubliet made a hideous discovery, human skeletons laid piled on top of each other. It took three full cart loads to remove all of the bones. Among the bones workmen found a pocket watch made in the 1840's. It is not certain if the dungeon was still in use then.

Because of its extremely bloody history Leap Castle has always had a reputation of being haunted, a reputation so strong local people avoided it at night. Completely gutted by fire, Leap Castle was boarded up and it's gates were pad locked for over 70 years. Locals have described seeing the windows at the top of the castle "light up for a few seconds as if many candles were brought into the room" late at night. The castle laid in ruin for years.

Shortly after Leap's dungons gruesome discovery, a psychic disturbance may have caused the emergence of the elemental spirit. In 1659 ownership of Leap Castle passed in marrage from the O'Carroll family to an English family, the Darbys. The Darby family turned Leap into their family home, with improvements and additions and landscaped gardens . In the late 19th century descendants Johanthan and Mildred Darby were looking forward to raising their family here. The occult was the fashion of the day, and Mildred Darby did some innocent dabbling, despite the castle's history and reputation for being haunted. Mildred's dabbling with magic awakened the elemental with ferocious velocity.

In 1909, Mildred Darby wrote an atricle for the Journal Occult Review, describing her terrifying ordeal. "I was standing in the Gallery looking down at the main floor, when I felt somebody put a hand on my shoulder. The thing was about the size of a sheep. Thin guanting shadowy..., it's face was human, to be more accurate inhuman. Its lust in its eyes which seemed half decomposed in black cavities stared into mine. The horrible smell one hundred times intensified came up into my face, giving me a deadly nausea. It was the smell of a decomposing corpse.

The elemental is thought to be a premative ghost that attaches itself to a particular place. It is often malevolent, terrifying and unpredictable. After Mrs. Darby's experiments in the black arts, Leap Castle has never been the same. Hauntings plague Leap leaving a sinister air throughout the castle. The Darbys remained at Leap until 1922. Being the home of an English family, it became the target of the Irish struggle for independence. Destroyed by bombs, completely looted, nothing but a burned out shell remained. The Darby's were driven out.

In the 1970's Leap Castle was purchased by an Australian, who had a white witch brought in from Mexico to exorcise the castle. She spent many hours in the bloody chapel, when she emerged she explained that the spirits at Leap Castle were no longer malevolent, but they wished to remain.

In the 1990's the castle was sold to the current owners. They were aware of the castle's troubled history. Shortly after moving in they began restoration of the castle. During which time a "freak accident" left the owner with a broken kneecap delaying restoration work on the castle for nearly a year. One year after his "accident" the owner was back at work restoring his castle when the ladder he was standing on suddenly tilted backwards away from the wall causing him to jump several stories resulting in a broken ankle. Both were strange accidents.

The owners say they would be happy to share the castle with the spirits as long as there are no more "occurrences".

In 1991, in Leap Castle's Bloody Chapel was the christening of the owner's baby daughter. For the first time in centuries the "Bloody Chapel" was filled with music, dancing, laughter, and most of all love. The day had been a "happy, pleasant, wonderful day". If the troubled spirits of Leap Castle did not leave, maybe they have finally found some peace.

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For your lesson I would like you to write a detailed description about the night you spend at Leap Castle. What happened, what did you see, were you afraid, ect. The creativity is totally up to you. I would like at least 250 words and there is no max word count!! The more detailed you are the higher your mark will be!!

75 points can be earned here!! This class will be graded periodically.

Subject: Re: Leap Castle Thu Jul 03 2008, 16:11

“…and here we are at the last stop of the day: Leap Castle!”

Elana yawned, covering her mouth with her hand. Their overly enthusiastic tour guide was having a rough time of getting their participation, but come on – they’d been on the road touring old buildings (said to be haunted, but really, did they expect them to believe that?) since early early early that morning, and they’d just had a huge dinner at a local pub which was making the tourists sleepy. She nudged Jenn and whispered, “Hopefully this’ll be better than that totally fake Maitland Fort.”

Her friend pushed up the window of their seat on the tour bus, it was getting chilly outside as the sun set, and said, “And that MacAlister Keep! C’mon, literal – fake - skeletons in closets? What do they think we are, twelve?”

As they drove up, the castle emerged. It had much more a foreboding fortress look than a romantic castle aura, which would hopefully prove to be more exciting than the earlier parts of the day. The bus slowed to a stop in front of the single door leading into the castle. The girls hopped out and followed the guide to the door, which opened with a squeak. Not quite a nails on the chalkboard squeak, but not pleasant either. They shuffled inside with the rest of the tour group and took a look around. Dark and damp, dreary and depressing, the inside wasn’t any better than the out.

“We have an hour and a half before we need to be back at the hotel,” said the tour guide, “so take half an hour to look around and meet me back at the bus then. But be careful: the chapel’s dungeon has – er – a hidden surprise for those caught unawares.”

“I love surprises! Let’s go to the chapel!”

Rolling her eyes, Jenn sighed resignedly, which Elana took as agreement. She grabbed her hand and sped off in the direction the guide had pointed. They soon came upon a chapel with a rather charming plaque that read ‘The Bloody Chapel.’ Underneath, someone had scrawled a barely legible ‘DO NOT ENTER.’

“Wonder why,” Elana muttered as she pushed open the door and walked inside. She took a few steps in and had to stop and plug her nose. The place reeked, to put it plainly. It reminded her of the time during CoMC when they were working with hippogriffs and dead ferrets were used to bribe them to do stuff. This stench was about a zillion times worse and mixing in the smell of rotten eggs and sweaty feet. As far as she could tell, it was coming from a door at the far end of the chapel. She started towards it when, suddenly, a hand grabbed her shoulder. She squeaked, much like the door hinges, to see that it was only Jenn.

“A bit jumpy, aren’t we?” she said teasingly, nose pinched shut against the smell. “Seriously though, we should be heading back. It stinks in here and I wanna see the castle!”

“Fine.”

As the girls left the chapel, a figure rose from the pew where it had been hidden. Short in stature, dark in coloring and shadowy in its movements, it followed them at a distance. Dusk was upon them, and so neither noticed the thing creeping after them through the out of place gardens dotting the distance between castle and chapel…

After wandering the castle for a bit, Jenn and Elana somehow ended up on the top floor near one of the few windows the castle had to offer. Being a fortress and all, there were only a couple windows for safety, and the thin slits that they were did nothing to let in the sun. Or maybe it was just that it was completely dark outside…meh. They were trying to see out of said window when a pair of bright lights caught their eyes. The two lights were coming from the ground, and they were turning away from the castle and it looked like they were heading down the road…

“You have got to be kidding me.”

“We can catch them – hurry!”

But, alas, by the time they had raced down the multiple staircases and made it across the threshold, the taillights of the tour bus had disappeared into the night. The girls looked over their shoulders at the menacing castle, shuddering at the thought of staying for the night. But they had brought their cells, right? That thought occuring to them, they reached into their pockets only to come back empty handed.

"Leave your phone in your bag?"

"The one convienently still inside of the bus?"

"Yep."

"Think we should go inside?"

The brisk wind picked up, blowing a few stray curls into Elana's face. Wiping them away, she repeated, "Yep."

Hoping that the door hadn't locked them out, they headed back and tried the handle. It opened with the same squeak as before, but it somehow sounded much more foreboding than before, leaving the girls with shivers zipping up their spines. A place this big ought to have ample guest rooms, they figured, and so set out to find them. As they searched the castle, the dark figure that had trailed them before had returned, daring to come closer now that all was dark except for the light from the girls' wands. It followed them from room to room, and when the picked one it was close enough to reach out and grab a foot dangling from a bed...

"Yuck! What's that smell?" exclaimed Jenn, hand zooming to her nose again to block the smell.

"I'd tell you if I knew," Elana said, voice squeaking as she followed Jenn's lead with the nose pinching.

They had finally found a furnished room with a number of beds and were trying to settle in when the stench had hit them. Elana rolled over on her bed and looked under it, hair sweeping against the wooden floor as she peered under the bed. She didn't know what she had expected to find, but the shadow didn't seem to fit. It jerked towards her and with a squeal she toppled onto the floor, scrambling away from the bed and the something underneath. Jenn hurried over. Knowing that her PIC had a tendancy to blow things out of proportion, she was more confused than concerned.

"What is it?"

"There's something under there!"

"I'll just check the closet then, since you're done checking the beds for monsters."

"No, seriously! I swear - there's something under there!"

"I'd really like to get some sleep, Elana, so if you're just trying to freak me out - "

"But it reeked - it's where the smell has been coming from! And it moved!"

Jenn peeled Elana's fingers from her arm and grabbed her wand. "Let's just get a closer look, okay?" she said reasonably. She lit her wand and lifted the bedskirt, shining the light underneath. Elana looked around her to see what the thing was, and gasped. The floor was empty of everything but dust bunnies. Jenn turned around to glare at her and stomped over to her bed. Climbing into it, she said, "Nice try, Elana. Night."

Holding her lit wand like a security blanket, Elana went to the bed on the other side of Jenn's instead of the one she had originally chosen. Though she laid down and tried to sleep, honestly tried, there wasn't anything she could do to get the stench out of her nose and the sight of the moving shadow out of her head. She ended up sitting cross-legged on the bed with the wand still lit, jumping at any shadow it made as she gave up on sleep. How was she supposed to sleep when she had honestly seen something?! Something that had probably been following them, since the smell had been faint but there ever since they had left the chapel. And why would something follow them? And why wouldn't it leave them be? And what was that something? And...

"Wakey wakey, Elana. It's getting late and we've gotta head down and hope that somebody comes by to pick us up."

Jerking awake, she was surprised to find that she had gotten any sleep at all. The last thing she remembered were questions flying through her mind and seeing the shadowy figure every time she moved the wand. But she had woken up, and so had Jenn, so it must not have had the intent of killing them or anything...If there had even been a figure. Maybe she really had imagined it after all. She sniffed to test out her new theory of nothing trying to get them, and was pleased to smell nothing but dust and her need for a shower. Smiling sheepishly, she said, "Sorry about last night. Guess I just let the tour guide's saying everything was haunted get to me."

As they left the castle to wait outside for the bus that was sure to come for them, neither girl noticed the figure slinking along in shadows much like itself, fighting the urge to reach out...

(Wow, sorry Nancy love XD Really tired at the moment so this is soooooo not the best thing I’ve ever written, lol. At least it’s over the min word limit :D)

Subject: Re: Leap Castle Thu Jul 03 2008, 18:40

Leap Castle

I walked up the lawn and towards the house that many had claimed to be haunted. I didn’t believe what they said, I had to see it for myself. I walked through the front doors thinking that I heard someone whispering something as I looked around for the owner. Within minutes I had spotted the owner and I walked over towards him.

“Hello, I believe that you’re the owner of this house and will be allowing me to spend the night” I said to the man as he walked closer to me.

“Oh yes that would be me” he man said and then he grabbed my bags. “Follow me and I’ll take you to your room” he said and he turned around and made her way to the staircase. We walked up the staircase and on the second floor we found the room that I was to stay in. The owner placed my bags into my room and bid me goodnight. I looked outside and saw that it was already dark outside. Looking at my watch I saw that the time was almost nine.

Well I guess I should start wandering around the house and find these ghosts that everyone speaks of I thought as I made my way out of the room and headed towards the living room. After wandering around the house for awhile I found the room I was looking for.

“Hello” I called out as I made my way inside. I heard no reply so I walked into the living room. Looking around I quickly spotted a fire that was burning in the fireplace. I walked over to it and all of a sudden I felt a cold breeze and turning around I saw nothing that could of created it. All of the windows were closed and there wasn’t anyone else in there except for me. Then I started to smell smoke and turning back to the fireplace I was that the fire was no longer burning.

“What would have done that” I thought but then I knew the answer. As the smoke rose up from the once burning fire I watched as a figure emerged from the smoke too and form a person’s body. I took a few steps back and went to scream but my voice failed me so instead I stood there with my mouth open but no words coming out. I felt like running but my feet would not allow. All I could do was stand there and watch as this figure rose up out of the fireplace taking the form of a human being. The ghost open it’s mouth too and said “Why dost thou killest thou brother?”

I heard about the history of this place and I could only guess that maybe this was the father of the son who killed his brother. I watched as he drew even closer and that’s when my senses started to come to me and I turned around and bolted right out of the living room. I ran back to my room where I gathered my bags, thankful that I didn’t remove any of my items. I grabbed my bags and headed straight for the downstairs and that’s when I ran into another ghost.

This one looked younger than the first and I saw in on his chest what appeared to be a blood stain and I came to the thought that it must be that man whom I saw in the living room’s son who was murdered by his brother. This young man was standing at the door and I braved my fears and ran right towards him. The ghost did move out of my way when I got closer to him and I threw open the door and ran outside not even looking back to see if the ghost was still there. I ran down the yard and into town where I got into a cab and went straight back home.

Subject: Re: Leap Castle Fri Aug 15 2008, 05:13

Awesome job my fellow Ravens!! I enjoyed reading both of these!!

Elana - Ravenclaw - 72

Stephy - Ravenclaw - 68

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