According to local legends, the ghosts in the house appeared after the visit of the devil himself.
Almost any house built 150 years ago is suggestive of ghosts. Of course, if it was not restored beyond recognition. But a special pleasure is to visit, or at least look at photographs of a house in which ghosts are definitely found. Well, exactly: in the opinion of its owners and those who live nearby.
Loftus Hall is one of those. Even if, in the opinion of the locals, ghosts were not found in it, they would be worth inventing again - this is how the atmosphere of this gloomy house located on the wind-blown and washed Hook Peninsula in the Irish County of Wexford has to do with it.
But, before we tell you what is so paranormal in this Loftus Hall, we suggest that you familiarize yourself with real historical events associated with the house. Moreover, they are worthy of attention without any devilry.
We can say that the history of the house began in 1135, when the Norman knight, Raymond Le Gros, landed on the peninsula. To quickly assimilate, the knight renamed himself the more familiar to the Irish ear, the last name Redmond.
The castle, built by the knight, stood for two centuries, until in 1350 the descendants of Redmond built a new house in its place. It is interesting that they were building right during the Black Death - a plague pandemic that arrived in Ireland by ship from Bristol a year earlier. The new house, Redmond Hall, was named.
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Three centuries later, in 1650, the house became the site of one of the fiercest sieges of the Irish Uprising. The owner of the house, 68-year-old Alexander Redmond, with two sons, a couple of local activists and a tailor who happened to be in the house at an unfortunate time, barricaded himself and bravoly repelled the attack of almost 90 British for several days. In all fairness, most of these Englishmen have crawled into neighboring villages, indulging in plunder and violence, instead of laying siege to the impregnable home.
The attack was repulsed with the help of the Irish forces that arrived in time, which attacked the British under cover of a thick fog, which in time fell on the Hook Peninsula.
According to local chronicles, Alexander repelled several more attacks. When the British nevertheless conquered Ireland in general, and Redmond Hall in particular, Cromwell even let Alexander die in peace in his own house - for his courage.
Well, after the death of Redmond, his relatives were evicted from the house and soon the house was sold to a family of Englishmen named Loftus, who live nearby. Subsequently, the Redmonds have repeatedly tried to sue Loftus Hall back, but to no avail. But as compensation, they were given land in the neighborhood.
The Loftuses moved rapidly up the court stairs. If in the 18th century the head of the family was called Baron Loftus of Loftus Hall, then already in 1800 the title of Marquis of Eli was created especially for the Loftus.
Actually, the 4th Marquis of Ely gave the modern look to Loftus Hall. A major renovation was undertaken by the Marquis in the second half of the 19th century: he very much hoped that Queen Victoria would come to visit. After all, the Marquis's mother was her maid of honor!
The Queen never came. But the 4th Marquis of Ely became the owner of a luxurious house with such unprecedented conveniences as flush toilets. And, alas, the owner of huge debts. Soon the house had to be sold and its wanderings began among different owners.
In 1917 the house was sold to the monastery order of the Sisters of Providence. In 1983, the house was converted into a hotel. Well, in the early 2000s, the Quickly family acquired it. In 2020, it became known that the house was again up for sale. Moreover, Quickly emphasize that they will not choose a new owner, but "the house will choose him." And that's why…
The story of how the devil sailed to Loftus Hall and what happened after his visit dates back to the 19th century. It sounds like this.
On a cold, rainy night, a rider in dark clothes rode up to Loftus Hall on a dark horse. He said that his ship was caught in a storm and had to dock in a nearby bay. The Loftuses were away, the family of their distant relatives, the Tottenham, lived in the house. They sheltered the rider and offered him shelter and bread.
Tottenham's daughter, young Anna, immediately fell in love with a mysterious stranger. A couple of days later, in the evening, everyone sat down to play cards. During the game, Anna dropped the card and, bending down to pick it up, saw that the stranger had cloven hooves instead of legs.
The stranger realized that he had been discovered. He immediately soared up, surrounded by devilish flames - and, as expected, made a huge hole in the roof.
It would seem that the devil is expelled, you can live on. But Anna, after the disappearance of the stranger, became not herself. She went crazy by leaps and bounds. The family, frightened by this development of affairs, locked the girl in her favorite sewing room.
There Anna sat, almost motionless, clasping her knees with her hands and soon died. According to another version of the legend, before her death, she managed to give birth to a child - that is, the devil did not waste time during two days in the house. Anna was not buried in an ordinary coffin: they could not straighten her and buried her in a sitting position, in which she spent the last months of her life.
Since then, according to numerous testimonies of guests and owners of the house, ghosts of a girl have been walking around the house. And the house itself has become a place of attraction for lovers of everything paranormal and creepy - excursions, especially popular on Halloween, are regularly conducted in Loftus Hall.
If you consider yourself a mystic, but do not have the opportunity to visit Loftus Hall yet, we recommend watching the gothic horror movie The Lodgers 2017. It is filmed entirely in the luxe and eerie interiors of Loftus Hall, and has received excellent critical reviews. Here's the trailer.