{"id":155140,"date":"2025-10-31T11:10:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-31T11:10:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/155140\/"},"modified":"2025-10-31T11:10:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-31T11:10:10","slug":"a-night-in-northern-irelands-most-haunted-castle-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/155140\/","title":{"rendered":"A night in Northern Ireland\u2019s most haunted castle \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

In a turret room at the top of a 400-year-old castle, the temperature plummets.<\/p>\n

There is no sound within its thick walls, and in the corner a small window overlooks Ballygally Bay on the dramatic east Antrim<\/a> coastline.<\/p>\n

This is the tower room from where Lady Isabella Shaw reportedly fell to her death; her ghost is supposed to haunt the dwelling (now a hotel) centuries later.<\/p>\n

Visitors pad quietly across the room\u2019s creaking floors after mounting a steep spiral staircase on a mild Thursday in October.<\/p>\n

Space is tight and the ceiling is low.<\/p>\n

One woman stands close to the door and appears anxious.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel a heaviness on my chest,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s like there\u2019s something pressing down on me.\u201d<\/p>\n

A wedding party is in full swing two floors below.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe ‘haunted’ room. Photograph: Stephen Davison <\/p>\n

Part of the original castle survives, and four rooms have been converted into bedrooms.<\/p>\n

The building is reputedly one of the most haunted in the North<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cTruth be told, this is only about my fifth time up here; it\u2019s always very eerie,\u201d says Samantha Jones, events manager at Ballygally Castle hotel.<\/p>\n

Some 50 other rooms are in the modern wing.<\/p>\n

Built as a defensive dwelling in 1625 by James Shaw, from Greenock in Scotland, the castle\u2019s former dungeon is now the ladies\u2019 toilets.<\/p>\n

At the foot of the staircase the initials of Shaw and his bride, then Isabella Brisbane, are carved in stone above the castle door.<\/p>\n

Shaw is said to have locked his wife away in the turret after she gave birth to a girl. He wanted a male heir. She tried to escape through the tiny window and reach the infant before falling to the rocks below, it is said.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Eight spine-chilling spots around Ireland to visit this HalloweenOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

The so-called ghost room, once available for overnight stays, is now for visiting only.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is without a shadow of a doubt haunted,\u201d says psychic Fiona Stewart-Williams.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you get up to the top of the tower room, that\u2019s an active space. It\u2019s not like the chairs are flying around the room. It\u2019s subtle intelligent workings.\u201d<\/p>\n

During a previous visit to the former dungeon, Stewart-Williams says she was overwhelmed by a \u201cterrible feeling\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a darkness to that place,\u201d she adds.<\/p>\n

\u201cI felt something overpoweringly negative, so I ran.\u201d<\/p>\n

Paranormal investigators from Japan are among those who have visited the castle to probe claims of supernatural activity.<\/p>\n

Hotel bar manager Mark Lappin from Armagh was urged by his wife, a New Yorker, to spend the night in one of the haunted tower rooms.<\/p>\n

\"BarBar manager Mark Lappin. Photograph: Stephen Davison <\/p>\n

\u201cShe was a paranormal investigator in New York. We stayed here on a wild Halloween night in 2019 and loved it. We couldn\u2019t get over the fact no one wanted to stay below the ghost room,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe sensed something being at the window. I\u2019m interested in this sort of thing but don\u2019t believe in it … though a lot of people ended badly round here. There were many deaths and battles fought. There\u2019s a long history of violence.\u201d<\/p>\n

Guests have reported unusual happenings and some long-standing staff members don\u2019t like discussing the supernatural, according to Lappin.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe night porter; you can\u2019t bring the subject up with him,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s supposed to be child ghosts in here; it\u2019s not just Lady Isabella, there\u2019s been reports of small hands pulling at your bed clothes at night.\u201d<\/p>\n

Villagers having an early evening pint in Matties Meeting House pub \u2013 a mile away in the neighbouring village of Cairncastle \u2013 smile when asked about ghostly sightings.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe story goes Lady Isabella jumped to her death. But if you see how small the windows are in that tower …\u201d says Jim Connolly, trailing off.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a whole pile of stories that people witnessed different things. I knew a woman who worked in it. She said there was a couple staying in the room below the ghost room one night who told her there were strange things happening all night. They said they would never stay there again.\u201d<\/p>\n

But some express concern about how \u201ccommercial\u201d the room has become.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt used to be more scary and grotty,\u201d says Angela Davis, who is serving drinks in the small 200-year-old bar (also investigated by paranormal enthusiasts).<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom being very young, I remember going up to the haunted room. You\u2019d get halfway up and then you\u2019d come down. When you were a teenager, you got a bit braver \u2026 I\u2019ve so many memories there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Connolly recalls how a friend became terrified when he stayed in the ghost room \u201cfor a dare\u201d more than 20 years ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was something went through him, he said it was just like pure ice passed through him. He told me it scared the bejaysus out of him.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"SamanthaSamantha James on the staircase that leads to the room. Photograph: Stephen Davison <\/p>\n

The hotel\u2019s housekeeper for almost 20 years insists the castle is haunted.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is something there, I tell you. There\u2019s definitely a spirit,\u201d says Maggie Wilson.<\/p>\n

She speaks quietly about a sighting that unsettled her.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was working here about a year when I went up one morning to one of the old castle rooms and seen the shadow going across the room so slowly,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt took me a while to go back up again, I still have an odd feeling when I go there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stewart-Williams has attended seances that take place in the castle\u2019s former meeting room.<\/p>\n

The psychic is familiar with \u201chauntings all over the Antrim coast\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cLook at how old that castle is and look at how many people have died at sea,\u201d she adds.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot there but it\u2019s up to people whether they want to believe or not.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In a turret room at the top of a 400-year-old castle, the temperature plummets. There is no sound…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":155141,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[90611,9,10,13,14,6,11,12,15,16,5,7,8,65,66,67],"class_list":{"0":"post-155140","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-ballygally-castle-hotel","9":"tag-breaking-news","10":"tag-breakingnews","11":"tag-featured-news","12":"tag-featurednews","13":"tag-headlines","14":"tag-latest-news","15":"tag-latestnews","16":"tag-main-news","17":"tag-mainnews","18":"tag-news","19":"tag-top-stories","20":"tag-topstories","21":"tag-world","22":"tag-world-news","23":"tag-worldnews"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115468477072534707","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155140","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=155140"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155140\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/155141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=155140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=155140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=155140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}