Two old relics head off to see more ruins

Another glorious day in Ireland and today the sun shone through the clouds to give us a perfect day for travel.

We started off with a full Irish breakfast, but I stopped at the black pudding and had to hand that over to Anne.

We posted some mail and had another coffee scones down in the town centre and at about midday we headed off for some more site seeing.

The first stop was at Lackeen Tower House.

There is a significant amount of folklore connected to the site. It is said that it is now the home to a pooka, a fairy shape-shifter from Irish mythology. The legend goes that some old hags were stealing from a dead body when an O’Kennedy came upon them.

They were defended by the pooka which was captured by O’Kennedy.

It was taken to Lackeen castle where O’Kennedy’s servants begged their master to let it go or else they would be cursed. After promising to never hurt any member of the O’Kennedy family, the pooka was released.

There is a local tradition which states that the pooka can still be seen roaming around the castle to this day. I have read several different versions of this story, and it can be found in many books of folklore.

This was an awesome place to wander through and explore. There were plenty of cows and calves in the meadows surrounding the Tower as it now sits on a farmer's property. We did manage to catch the farmer and ask his permission to walk through his property to get to the Tower.

The whole thing was quite open and we could wander through to our hearts content. If the Tower was in Australia we would never be allowed to venture in without it being made safe with ropes and ladders and ....oh, let's face it - it just would not happen.

So to have the freedom of going up and down the old winding staircases, stepping over birds nests, hanging onto what was left of frames, walls and balancing on ledges was fun and exciting.

Did we see the Puka? No we did not, but I am glad that whatever elementals were there that we did not see were looking after us and keeping us safe.

Then we went on to Birr Castle.

The castle itself is out of bounds, but we went there for the gardens, which are expansive.

There are 120 acres of gardens and parklands to enjoy within the castle demesne. It’s home to many rare plants, collected over the years by the Earls of Rosse on their overseas travels. The current Earl and Countess have also traveled to many countries in search of new plant species for the gardens.

There are now over 2000 species of plant as well as over 40 champion trees throughout the gardens.

By the end of the day we were totally wrecked, but the gardens were beautiful with fields of wild flowers carpeting the grounds.

Comments

Diary of a Ghost Hunter - The Wallacia Hotel

We were given the opportunity of staying overnight at the Wallachia Hotel in Western Sydney. The hotelwas officially opened on December 3rd 1937. During the Second World War the hotel was used as the Army headquarters for radiopyhysics. I had never been to the Wallacia Hotel before, but, my ghost hunting gal pal Anne, had been there about 5 years ago with a group of Paranormal Investigators that she was working with at the time. We arrived and we were greeted by Craig, the night manager, who welcomed us with open arms. Craig recognised Anne from the last time she had visited. Anne asked whether any spooky things had been happening over the last few years. Craig said that he always thought that there was something a little bit weird going on late at night. Over the last few months everything had changed as the Hotel had been very much affected by the COVID lock downs This was a huge hotel with quite an interesting history even though in the whole scheme of things the hotel was only

Lemon Tree Passage Ghost - Local legend is alive and well

Lemon Tree Passage is a suburb of the Port Stephens local government area in the Hunter Region of New South Wales, Australia, located at the end of the Tilligerry Peninsula and surrounded by the waters of beautiful Port Stephens . Ever since I can remember there have been a few urban legends about a stretch of highway named Lemon Tree Passage Road. The story begins when a motor bike rider and his pillion passenger died after colliding with a four wheel drive killing both. This seems to be the source of the ghostly lights and apparition. These sort of events don't stay quiet in small townships. Stories spread fast often not ending up like they started. Every so often this urban legend makes a comeback with a number to people tempting fate and poking the ghost rider. A memorial to Dale Dickens on the Lemon Tree Passage Road / Pic: Robert Mckell Source:The Daily Telegraph The Lemon Tree Passage ghost first made headlines in 2010 after drivers cau

Diary of a Ghost Hunter - Lochinvar House in the Hunter Valley NSW

I have just spent a weekend at the historic homestead - Lochinvar House, just outside of Lochinvar in the NSW Hunter Valley. This was, for me, a team bonding opportunity and a chance to get away from worries associated with Covid. It was also where members of my ghost hunting volunteers got to head onto this site before we invited in the public, to check out the stories of ghosts and alleged hauntings. Now, as usual, not all historic houses are haunted. And even more intriguing, it seems that not all historic houses are haunted for all the families that live therein. Many times I have heard this - one family may experience seeing and hearing strange things happening at all hours of the day and night. Yet, another family will move in and.....nothing! And so it is.. Why is it like this? I don't know. Do the ghosts pick us? Lochinvar House was built back in the late 1820's by Leslie Duguid who was granted a enormous amount of land in 1822. He was one of the first land owners in N

DIARY OF A GHOST HUNTER

Search This Blog