Loftus Hall, One Of The Most Haunted Mansions In Ireland
Loftus HallLoftus Hall, which legend says once hosted the Devil himself in the late 18th century.
Perched on County Wexford’s Hook Peninsula, Loftus Hall is one of the most haunted mansions in Ireland — and has been for quite some time.
Its story begins with a Norman knight named Raymond le Gros, who built a castle on the site around 1170. By 1350, as the Black Death swept across the Emerald Isle, his descendants had replaced the castle with a new structure known as Redmond Hall, which still stands today.
Then, in the mid-1600s, during Cromwell’s sweeping conquest, the estate changed hands. Eventually, the English Loftus family acquired it, and the hall gradually evolved as time went on. Between 1872 and 1884, the fourth Marquess of Ely ordered extensive renovations to the mansion, adding a grand staircase, mosaic tiles, parquet floors, and even then-novel features like flushing toilets and a heating system.
During the renovations, however, a horrible secret was uncovered: an infant’s remains hidden in the walls of the Tapestry Room. Then, a new legend about the estate began to circulate.
As the story goes, during a vicious storm in 1775, a stranger arrived at the estate. The Tottenham family — relatives of the Loftuses who were living at Loftus Hall at the time — welcomed the man inside, and their daughter, Anne, quickly befriended him. One night, they were all playing cards together when Anne dropped something on the floor. As she bent down to retrieve it, she glimpsed the stranger’s cloven hoof.
Thomas BeavisA photograph taken by an English visitor, purportedly showing a ghostly woman in a window.
Horrified, Anne confronted the man, and he erupted through the roof in flames, leaving a scorched ceiling and the scent of sulfur behind. Anne then spiraled into madness, secluding herself in the Tapestry Room until she died — permanently stationed in her window seat. Some believe her spirit still wanders the halls of the purportedly haunted mansion.
The child’s hidden remains, however, point to an even sadder possibility. Scholars suggest the ghostly legend may have been the family’s attempt at concealing Anne’s pregnancy out of wedlock — potentially at the hands of the visitor — and the subsequent death and concealment of her child.
Today, Loftus Hall is open for haunted mansion tours and overnight stays. Guests have reported ghostly apparitions and strange chills. One visitor, Thomas Beavis, even snapped a photo of what many believe is a ghostly presence at a window.
