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Taylor 

Mrs. Kelly

English 9

1 April 2008

                                                            Leap Castle: Past and Present

Thesis Statement: Leap Castle is a staple to the Irish Land.  Its walls have stood the test of time.   Strange occurrences have happened at Leap Castle and it is now a focal point for paranormal researchers. 

I.                   Introduction

II.                The Druidic Land Leap Castle was built On

III.             The O’Carroll Family and the Murders that Occurred

IV.             The Darby Family

V.                Mildred Darby’s Encounters

VI.             The Ghosts of Leap Castle

VII.          The Irish Civil War’s Impact on Leap Castle and the Discoveries Made

VIII.       New Owners throughout the Years

IX.             Leap Castle Today

X.                Conclusion                                                                                                                    

Leap Castle: Past and Present

            If someone were to visit Ireland, it probably would not be a shock for him or her to see many castles across the countryside.  Many of these castles are thousands of years old and had many different uses.  Some were used as homes while some were used as places of refuge in times of battle.  Usually only people with high authority occupied these great houses.  Many of the castles in Ireland are still in use today as beautiful homes. But, some of the magnificent castles of centuries ago now sit in ruin.  Leap Castle was one of these; however, after many years of sitting in complete devastation, Seán Ryan and Anne Callanan occupy it today.  Located in County Offaly in Southern Ireland, Leap Castle was home to the warlike O’Carroll and O’Bannon families’ centuries ago.  In its long history, Leap Castle has seen many occupants and many deaths.  Leap Castle is a staple to the Irish land.  Its walls have stood the test of time.  Leap Castle has seen strange occurrences and it is now a focal point for paranormal research.  In turn, how have these strange events provided the basis for the castle’s lurid legends?

            Leap Castle now stands on a plot of land once inhabited by pagan peoples.  In Matthew Gorman’s article, “The Spirits of Leap Castle” reported in The Seattle Sinner, he states that pre-Christian Bronze Age artifacts were found around the site.  “The plot of land was once used by pagan peoples for some purpose...most likely a spiritual one” (3).  Miranda Green talks about

Celtic spirituality which often involved the sacrifices of people or animals.  Shooting, impalement, hanging, stabbing, drowning, and burning were all means of sacrifice.  The pagan people on the land often used a “Wicker Man” for human and animal sacrifice (71).  Strabo, a pagan Greek geographer and historian, writes in one of his works, Geography IV: ‘...having devised a colossus of straw and wood, [they] throw into the colossus cattle and wild animals of all sorts and human beings, and then they make a burnt offering of the whole thing’ (qtd. in Green 75).  The Celts would build a giant man of sticks and twigs and fill it with people or animals, eventually setting the entire thing on fire.  In fact, before Leap Castle was even built on the land, a history of bloodshed was already being formed.

            Today, Leap Castle stands on a ridge 635 feet high in the heart of the Irish Midlands.  Leap is forty miles south of the center of Ireland, the Rock of Divisions.  Legend says that two O’Bannon brothers who were both claimants to the castle and its land made a bet.  They decided that they would both jump off a cliff with the agreement that whoever lived inherited the castle; nevertheless, one did.  The inaugural name was “Leim ui Bhanain” which means O’Bannon’s Leap in English.  Years later, the castle was known as Lemyvane and also Lemyvadon.  The English always had trouble spelling these, and later it was merely known as The Leap (Attwood 45).

            When Leap was built in the end of the fifteenth century, it was used as a fortress and a home to the powerful Irish Princes of Ely O’Carroll.  The warlike O’Carroll clan lived in Leap Castle for over 150 years.  Many murders occurred while the O’Carrolls resided there.  Matthew Gorman talks about a legend of an O’Carroll chieftain in his article: An O’Carroll chieftain invited some of the clan that lived far away to dinner at the castle.  He later had them slaughtered as they sat down to eat (1).  In 1532, the O’Carroll chieftain, Mulrooney O’Carroll, died.  A harsh rivalry for a new leader started between two brothers.  One of these brothers was a priest and was murdered by his adversarial brother while holding a mass in what is now known as the “Bloody Chapel” for the family.  Carolyn Ahrns explains: “While chanting the holy rites, his rival brother [Thady O’Carroll] 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” (1).  Such a heinous act of violence and the blasphemy of a murder during a sacred ceremony and prayer represents the “ultimate in wickedness” (Attwood 51).  The Darby family obtained ownership of the castle in years to come.

            Records show that it was not until 1667 that a Darby was living in Leap Castle-John Darby.  Marigold Freeman-Attwood, a close descendant of the Darby family talks in depth of these recordings in her book, Leap Castle: A Place and its People.  There is much to say in Darby folklore.  In 1558, John Darby was part of a force overtaking Leap Castle.  Soon after, the O’Carrolls repossess the castle.  Darby was taken prisoner in the house and is locked in a cell.  Finola O’Carroll was the daughter of the O’Carroll chieftain, who was the heiress of the castle.  She brought him food and drink and they fell in love.  Now, there are two versions of how Captain Darby escapes.  The first says that Finola later overheard her brother plotting the execution of the Englishmen.  She ran and got the keys to the cell and helped him escape.  As he raced down the stairs, the Captain ran into the brother.  He turned around and hurled himself into a nearby tree, and was recaptured.  At Finola’s plea, he was pardoned. The other version says that the brother separated the two lovers on the stairs. The two of them jumped into the tree and returned in victory after Leap Castle fell to the English.  A John Darby did live in Leap Castle, but these stories are just stories, not proven fact (59-60). 

After John Darby, a man named Jonathan Darby moved into Leap Castle.  Some people think that he is the son of John Darby.  Jonathan Darby was actually a Cromwellian soldier; there was no father-son relation between the two.  He was known as the “Wild Captain”. During his residence at Leap Castle, he was accused of high treason and was sent to trial in Birr.  Before he left, he called upon two of his most trusted servants and the three of them gathered all of the treasure and valuables in the castle.  He later slaughtered the two unknowing servants so that he was the only one who knew where the buried horde was.  Jonathan was brought to Birr for trial, found guilty, and awaited execution there.  The courts granted him amnesty, but because he sat in irons for most of his duration in prison, his legs became paralyzed.  With the motion of his legs, he also lost his mind.  The only thing he remembered was his buried fortune:  “On, returning home, he could only murmur, ‘My treasure, my treasure!’, and had no idea where he had concealed it” (64).  Jonathan Darby was not the last Darby to reside in Leap Castle.  He had many descendants, also named Jonathan.

            After the “Wild Captain”, five generations of Jonathan Darby’s lived in Leap Castle.  After the consecutive generations of Jonathan’s, one William Henry Darby lived in Leap (182).  Nevertheless, after him were two more generations of Jonathan Darby’s.  The Darby family may have wanted all of their sons to have Christian names so that they could perhaps feel a sense of tradition (68).   

The last Jonathan Darby of Leap Castle lived from about 1855 through 1943.  He was married to Mildred Gordon Dill (182).  Mildred “Milly” may have had the most profound effect on the castle.  Milly did a bit of dabbling in the occult.

In an interview with Eric Ewing, Executive Director of Paranormal Experiences Research Institute (Paraex), he talks about Milly’s interest in the occult: “Mildred was actually having marital problems, and so did a bit of innocent dabbling in the occult.  She really did not know what she was doing!” (Ewing)  Apparently, Milly called upon a certain “Elemental” spirit during a séance she was holding.  Myth and legend says that for the four elements (Earth, Fire, Air, and Water) there are said to be spirits.  Milly called upon the Salamander of the Fire Elemental.  She actually got more than she bargained for because she opened a door to another side.

In an article of Occult Review in 1909, Milly wrote in and described what she had previously seen in her own home:

I was standing in the Gallery looking down at the main floor, when I felt

something put a hand on my shoulder.  The thing was about the size of a

sheep. Thin gaunting shadowy...its 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.  (Gorman 2)

This Elemental spirit still resides in Leap Castle today.  People often refer to the Elemental as “It.”  When asked why It is still in Leap Castle after almost one hundred years, Eric Ewing explained that it may be because the person responsible for It coming about has not cast It away yet.  Since Mildred Darby is dead, it might be impossible to send the Elemental back from where It came (Ewing). This spirit is demonic and is often malevolent and is very unpredictable.  It is said to be about two feet tall; half-human, half-beast.  It supposedly haunts the tower stair that overlooks the hangman’s field (McClaren 80).  People report often smelling sulfur before It “strikes” which further supports that it is demonic.  Eric Ewing’s close friend Barry Fitzgerald from the show Ghost Hunters International was actually attacked by the Elemental while visiting Leap Castle.  “He [Fitzgerald] does not like to talk about it very much” (Ewing).   

            Many people think Leap to be haunted just because of the gruesome history and will avoid it at night.  Simon Marsden, an internationally acclaimed photographer, photographed Leap Castle in the early 1980’s.  He confirms how ominous Leap really is: “Known universally as the most haunted castle in all Ireland, Leap Castle is without a shadow of a doubt the most sinister and frightening building I have ever photographed” (J1).  Eric Ewing also lends credence to the overall feeling of the castle: “Barry Fitzgerald has been to the castle and says it has a very unwelcoming heavy feeling-like a room where people have been arguing” (Ewing).  Obviously, Leap still has a negative feeling.  This could be because of the spirits other than the Elemental that still live in the castle. 

There are said to be about twenty active spirits on the castle grounds today.  People have reported seeing a monk’s face and the hood in a corner of the “Bloody Chapel.”  While Milly Darby resided at Leap, visitors often saw a tall female figure in a red dress walking around with her hand over her head.  There are many other haunts also, considering the mass murders that occurred in the castle centuries before. 

People believe that Leap Castle is built on a “ley line” in the earth.  According to Jason Papadopoulos who writes about the coincidences of ley lines, the English countryside is full of them.  They are straight lines in the earth that connect ancient places, with some being over ten miles long (1).  Leap sits on a ley line that connects itself in a triangle with Kinnitty Castle and Charleville Castle, two other extremely haunted sites in Ireland (Gorman 3).  All of this just adds to the magic and menacing feelings of the castle. 

 Milly Darby’s encounter with the Elemental is not the end of her family’s story.  The Darby’s were an English family.  During the Irish Civil War, Irish nationalists rose up and burned Leap because of an English family owning it.  It was burned down on July 30 and 31, 1922.  The Darby’s never returned (Attwood 135).

Carolyn Ahrns talks about the shocking discovery made in the early 1900’s.  First of all, Irish castles were commonly known for their oubliettes.  An oubliette is a form of torture to prisoners.  The word oubliette is a French word that means “to forget.”  That is what exactly happened to its prisoners- they were forgotten, not to mention left in the worst pain of their life.  The victims were lured into position and then dropped about eight feet onto spikes.  If one was lucky, they died quickly.  Those not so lucky lay in torturous pain and suffered starvation.  They would lay there with the smell of death of people who had died there previously with the aroma of food and the sounds of joy and merriment of parties wafting from above.  If only to add to the pain and suffering, a narrow window was put in to see who could come and go to and from the castle in freedom (1).  With this being said, around 1900, workers came to clean out the oubliette of the castle.  They found a great deal of bones lying in the bottom. They ended up pulling three cartloads of bones from the oubliette.  They discovered a pocket watch dated to the 1800’s which raises the question of when the use of the oubliette stopped. 

After the Darby family, a couple other people bought Leap Castle.  Peter Bartlett, an Australian descendant of the O’Bannon clan bought the castle while visiting during a family gathering.  Marigold Freeman-Attwood talks about him and wishes that knew him: “What does all this mean to Leap? [He] was a mixture of English, Irish, Scottish...Catholic and Protestant, Lord, Carpenter, and Convict...” (155).  However, Peter Bartlett died in 1987.

Today, Seán Ryan, his wife Anne, and their daughter reside in the castle.  They have had many experiences of their own.  Colin Coyle reports to Times Online how Seán feels about his home: “I bought my own house partly because of the supposed presence of a ghost, not that I really expected to ever witness anything unusual...there had been rumors locally that it was haunted...which intrigued me. But it wasn’t until a few years ago that we noticed anything out of the ordinary” (Coyle 3).  A couple freak accidents happened while the Ryan family was completing restorations of the castle.  Seán was standing on a ladder that tipped backwards.  He fell a couple stories and was left with a broken kneecap that stopped all work on the castle for a year.  Another accident happened in which Seán was left with a broken ankle.  Seán also tells of a time when his daughter, Ciara, was learning to play the flute:  “My wife and I began to hear her practicing late at night.   When we asked her not to play at such a late hour, she protested that she had been asleep” (3).   Ciara has felt the presence of a child whom she calls “Charlotte” (Attwood 131).  The Ryan’s are convinced that no evil spirits still inhabit Leap.

Leap Castle has suffered through many murders and been the refuge of many families.  Whether it is the powerful O’Carrolls of centuries ago, or the humble Ryan family of modern Ireland, Leap Castle is still the stronghold of those who inhabit it.  Perhaps Sacheverell Sitwell best depicts Leap Castle: “Perhaps there is no house in the world that holds so many suggestions of the supernatural. Leap has to be seen to be believed.”