Dublins most haunted castles?

Drimnagh Castle was built approx.1216 by Sir Hugh de Bernival. It is the only remaining castle in Ireland with a flooded Norman moat. The reputedly haunted location boasts a 15th-century great hall and a 16th-century tower. The castle stayed in the same family for centuries till it was sold to a dairy farmer in the 1900s when its first restoration was attempted. It stayed in his family till it was sold to the Christian Brothers in 1953 who built a school on the land. It fell into ruin again and risked demolition in the 1970s till it was partially taken over by An Caisleán GAA who restored the coach house. In 1986 artist Peter Pearson and a local committee got FÁS to restore it and the adjoining 17th-century garden to its former glory. The venue, which was featured in The Tudors, can be hired as a wedding and party venue. Ghosts are not included in the bill!

Mysterious Puck’s Castle is an easily overlooked, overgrown ruin in a cow field in Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown. What it lacks in size it makes up for in mythology. “Púca” as Gaeilge means a spirit and this name was anglicised to Puck, denoting the possible haunted history of the little citadel. Built around the early 16th century, legend says it was constructed using cursed materials stolen from a nearby ancient magical ringfort called “Bearna Dhearg”. To defend “The Pale” it was not unusual then to cannibalize sacred Celtic sites for stone, no matter how severe the curses were. A more recent, and sadly verified, story occurred in 1867. An English girl who lived locally, called Jane Eleanor Sherrard, vanished whilst picking wildflowers near the castle, never to be seen again. In this case, it seems some monsters are sadly all too human!

 Tinsel Castle in Finglas is located on private land near the end of a runway, at Dublin airport. The four-storey medieval tower house was built in 1450 and its 500-year-old roof is the last surviving original wooden roof on an Irish castle. The same family lived there for centuries until it was abandoned in the 1870s. It contains a haunted chapel dating from 1573, defensive slits in its towers, and a barrel-vaulted ground floor. Saint Oliver Plunkett reported staying there. Dunsoglhy Castle was featured in Braveheart, standing in for Edinburgh Castle home of Robert the Bruce.

800 years of continuous occupation, births deaths, and battles means Malahide Castle is haunted by several spirits, the most famous of which is Puck. He was the creepy Court jester who lived in the turret room. He was notorious for falling in love with female visitors but sadly his affections were never returned. He took his own life but his diminutive apparition is seen about the castle but mainly near Pucks Door in the main hall. There is also the Lady in White, a female spirit who haunts the corridors and gardens.