Leap Castle

 

Yesterday I had reason to look for more information on Leap Castle in Ireland, with which my paternal ancestors were associated. After reading for hours, I now think perhaps I should deny any connection. 

 Photo courtesy of Wikipedia 

The castle was built by the O’Bannon family somewhere between the late 12th century and the 15th century, although likely around 1250.  It is well accepted that the fortified tower house was built upon a much earlier settlement site which dates back to the Iron Age. Though the O’Bannons were powerful in their own right, they were pledged to the O’Carroll family, who took control of the castle away. The O’Carrolls used the castle as a site for battles, and numerous massacres occurred inside the walls.  Yes, that's my lot.

Thanks to my DNA and Ancestry.com I've been in contact with a third cousin on this side of the family, a retired high court judge who is an amazing researcher.  I so wish I'd known her when I visited Ireland in 2015.  I visited Galway, Limerick and Cork all of which aren't very far from the castle which is located in County Offaly, Ireland, just outside of Coolderry, north of Roscrea.   Another relative has visited in the last couple of years and was shown around by the current owner, Sean Ryan.  She has sent me photos but they aren't as good as those I'm using, thanks to Mr Google (sorry Debbie).

 

 Photo courtesy of Wikipedia 

It is often called “the most haunted castle in Ireland,” thanks mainly to the bloody history of the O’Carroll clan. 

It is also home to one of the world’s most famous oubliettes.  The history of Leap Castle is deep and dark.

The opening of Leap Castle’s oubliette

 Photo courtesy of projectdreamscape.org/

I had never heard of an oubliette!  It's a French word and it translates to: a forgotten place where criminals and undesirables were thrown and left to die. It was a deep pit often found in castles. Dating back centuries, it frequently had sharp spikes and a narrow opening with a wider base which made it harder to scale back up.

The victim may or may not be impaled when they hit the bottom, it was a matter of chance. Usually the fall or spikes would not cause immediate death. Instead, the doomed would suffer for days if not weeks before death mercifully took over.

The oubliette at Leap Castle is housed in the Chapel (of all places), generally known as the Bloody Chapel because one of my ancestors stabbed his brother to death at the foot of the altar. 

The Bloody Chapel

The O’Carrolls were brutish and treated their enemies violently. Stories are told of the O’Carrolls hiring other nearby clans to act as mercenaries to murder other clans. Rather than paying them for a job well-done, the O’Carrolls invited them to a feast at Leap Castle, where the unsuspecting allies were poisoned and thrown into the oubliette.

During the 1920s, repair work uncovered the oubliette hidden by a trapdoor and it was cleaned out. Remains from over 150 bodies were rolled out in wheelbarrows. A pocket watch from the mid-1800s indicated how recent the oubliette had claimed souls.

The O’Carolls called Leap Castle their home until it was wrenched from their hands in 1642 by an English soldier of the Cromwellian forces named John Darby.  The castle has been subject to much remodelling and restoration over the years, most of the remodelling having been done by the Darbys. The Darbys inhabited Leap Castle from 1642 until it’s burning in 1922.  Unfortunately Leap Castle was the target for an uprising and was looted and burnt to an empty shell in 1922.  Here it lay dormant until it was purchased in 1974 by an Australian, Peter Bartlett, a descendent of the O’Bannons. This saw the awaking of the ancient building. The work is now being continued by current owners, the Ryans.

Sean Ryan claims to have personally met several of the ghosts including the Lady in Red who wanders the castle holding the dagger she used to take her own life and crying for her murdered child, and the ghostly spirits of two little girls who are believed to have lived at Leap Castle in the 1600s. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leap_Castle