Haunted Mansions: Duckett’s Grove In County Carlow, Ireland
IrishFireside/Flickr Creative CommonsDuckett’s Grove has towered over a field in County Carlow, Ireland, since the 18th century.
Ireland’s history is teeming with the paranormal — folk belief in things like leprechauns and banshees was quite common — so it’s unsurprising that the Emerald Isle would host a number of haunted mansions.
Duckett’s Grove in County Carlow is just another example. A Gothic revival ruin, it was originally built around 1745 for the Duckett family, prominent local landowners. It began as a Georgian country house before it was transformed in the 1820s and 1830s into the elaborate, castellated structure that still stands today.
The mansion once stood at the center of a 12,000-acre estate, but when William Duckett — the last male heir of the Duckett family — died in 1908, his estranged widow left. The estate was managed externally, its lands sold, and the mansion itself left empty.
Then, in 1933, a devastating fire gutted the interior, leaving only a hauntingly beautiful shell. While the exact cause of the fire is unconfirmed, many people have speculated and spread rumors about what may have caused it. From there, whispers of paranormal happenings spread as well.
One popular version of the legend suggests that a Piseóg — a traditional Irish curse — was placed on the Duckett family after the tragic death of William’s young mistress in a riding accident. Her grief-stricken mother is said to have invoked a banshee whose wail now echoes through the ruins, warning of impending death — and locals also claim to hear her cry preceding real tragedies.
Rob Hurson/Flickr Creative CommonsThe interior of Duckett’s Grove burned in the 1930s.
Other paranormal claims involve disembodied voices in the haunted mansion’s old kitchen, specters of family members, a phantom horse and carriage arriving at the entrance, floating lights, orbs, shadowy figures, and full-bodied apparitions riding across the grounds.
All of these claims have continued to drive fascination with Duckett’s Grove, leading the SyFy series Destination Truth to conduct a live paranormal investigation at the site in 2011. During the investigation, they reported light anomalies, strange figures, and mysterious sounds. Other accounts from ghost hunters and visitors describe time slips, phantom noises, and inexplicable sensations within the desolate spaces.
Today, Carlow County Council manages the walled gardens of Duckett’s Grove, which were restored and opened to the public in 2007. The supposedly haunted mansion at the center of it all, though, remains inaccessible, its eerie frame continuing to inspire ghostly tales and rumors.
