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Irelands most haunted house where reputedly the devil played cards if you believe in ghosts that is.
for more interesting facts here is the link
(126/365) We visited Loftus Hall "Ireland's most haunted house" on Sunday to sample what was on offer for their Bealtaine (May day) Pagan celebrations. There were craft demonstrations, live music & a BBQ plus we got to wander around their restored walled gardens.
The garden was OK but a bit sparse with nothing much in flower, all seemed a bit thrown together? I'm sure it will be great in a year or 2 when the plants are more established. The weather wasn't brilliant either, sea fog rolled in & it got very chilly but the textures of the old stone walls in this corner caught my eye before we left. HWW! You can read about Loftus Hall here www.loftushall.ie/about/
Loftus lens and Ina's 1982 film
Random Hispatmatic combination. Zero edit. Amazing, better than me.
Olloclip for iphone
Taken from the top of the Eiffel Tower - probably one of the coolest places (apart from Loftus Road ) to play football.
This must have been a nice commission for Mr. Poole! A naval(?) officer and his bride with elegant uniforms in a beautiful "big house" setting. Were the children the produce of an earlier marriage or relatives of the bride or groom? Today there would be a chance that they could be the couple's own children, how times have changed....
With thanks in particular to sharon.corbet, we have confirmation that the Loftus-Baylis wedding took place in August 1915, and that those pictured almost certainly include:
- the bride, Patricia Loftus (daughter of Maj. JB Loftus of Mount Loftus, Co Kilkenny)
- the groom, Cmdr. Horace Temple Taylor Bayliss (son of Mrs. Bayliss, of Bagnalstown, Co Carlow)
- a groomsman(?), Cmdr. FM Walton (or Lt-Cmdr. Pugh?)
- "little attendant" girls, Miss Inez Fowler, Miss Sally Dobbs,
- "little attendant" boys, Master Doral and Liam O'Brien
The dog remains unnamed - but is presumably a Loftus family dog. And (given that a dog was unlikey to have been brought along to a hotel or other "outside" venue), there's a suggestion the image was captured at the bride's family home of Mount Loftus, in County Kilkenny....
Photographer: A. H. Poole
Collection: Poole Photographic Studio, Waterford
Date: Catalogue range c.1901-1954. Almost certainly 15 August 1935
NLI Ref: POOLEWP 4108
You can also view this image, and many thousands of others, on the NLI’s catalogue at catalogue.nli.ie
Pictures from East Harlsey's 8 wicket victory against Loftus CC. This win keeps East Harlsey in the hunt for the Langbaurgh League title.
A Villanelle poem I wrote called “Empty Diamonds”:
No baseball today or yet tomorrow.
What is going on? What has attacked?
Diamonds empty of nines bring true sorrow.
Cactus, Grapefruit, in such leagues teams did go,
Spring training at hand, all appeared on track.
No baseball today or yet tomorrow.
Pitchers, catchers did report and did throw.
Mitts caught sliders, fastballs, curves… whack! whack! whack!
Diamonds empty of nines bring true sorrow.
No Opening Day? ‘Tis a bitter blow.
Silence ‘stead of bat meeting ball with crack.
No baseball today or yet tomorrow.
Why? Pandemic sprung. Tidal waves followed
Of patients with fever, cough, choked air sacs
Diamonds empty of nines bring true sorrow.
COVID’s stats make us gulp with hard swallow.
Nothing’s normal, so color this year black.
No baseball today or yet tomorrow
Diamonds empty of nines bring true sorrow.
26.5.2022.
The 1956 'Handbook of Stations' listed the goods yard as capable of dealing with all classes of freight traffic and equipped with a goods shed and a five ton crane. There were a number of sidings, a coal depot and weighbridge.
Nowadays (2022), the only remaining evidence is the goods shed.
Originally built in 1875 the shed had space for two sidings running into it (now bricked up), a large double full height door and offices.
The building is owned by Cleveland Potash who up and till recently used it for storage - although when I visited the whole place was bricked up.
County Wexford, Ireland.
Loftus Hall is a large mansion house on the Hook peninsula, County Wexford, Ireland that is said to have been haunted by the devil and by the ghost of a young woman.
The Redmond family built the building in about 1350 during the time of the Black Death. It replaced their original castle at Houseland near Portersgate. The Hall became the property of the Loftus family in the 1650s as a result of the Cromwellian confiscations and this was confirmed after the Restoration of King Charles II of England by the Act of Settlement 1662.(?)
The building that exists today was not built between 1870 and 1871 as many people believe. The Hall was in fact renovated extentively before a visit by Queen Victoria. The Queen then did not turn up. In 1917 Loftus Hall was bought by the Sisters of Providence and turned into a convent and a school for young girls interested in joining the order. In 1983, it was purchased by Michael Deveraux who reopened it as "Loftus Hall Hotel", which was subsequently closed again in the late 1990s.
It was privately owned by Deveraux's surviving family until late 2008, when it was sold to an unnamed buyer, rumoured to be Bono of U2 fame. It is currently owned by the Quigley family.
The name 'Loftus Hall' is also applied to the townland surrounding the mansion. The entire townland of Loftus Hall, including the building itself, can be overlooked from Hook Lighthouse.
The staircase in Loftus Hall is one of only three of that design in the world, one is at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean as the Grand Staircase in The Titanic and the other is in Vatican City.
Contents [hide]
1 Attack during the Irish Confederate Wars
2 Dispossession and change of ownership
3 Ghost story
4 Media representations
5 References
6 External links
Attack during the Irish Confederate Wars[edit]
In 1642, the future Loftus Hall – then known as Redmond's Hall – was attacked by English soldiers loyal to Charles I of England.
The Irish Confederate Wars had broken out in 1641 and hostilities commenced in Wexford in 1642. An English garrison of around 100 men under the command of Lord Esmonde was based at Duncannon Fort on Waterford Harbour. On 23 February, this garrison was reinforced by a further 200 soldiers under the command of Captain Anthony Weldon and Captain Thomas Aston along with six cannon.
On 19 June a party of these soldiers from the fort were attacked by a group of Irish Confederates under the command of Captain Rossiter and Major James Butler at Shielbaggan while their on way to Tintern. The English were routed and driven back to the fort.
Redmond's Hall was clearly visible to the beleaguered garrison at Duncannon. The Hall's owner, Alexander Redmond, was known to be sympathetic to the rebels. The Hall was known as a place that gave assistance to the rebels. Captain Aston believed it could be easily taken and on 20 July 1642 took ship from Duncannon with around ninety men and two small cannon, landing near the Hall.
Although he was sixty-eight years old, Alexander Redmond barricaded the Hall and prepared to defend it. He was assisted by his sons, Robert and Michael, some of their tenants, two men at arms and an itinerant tailor who happened to be at work in the Hall when the attack took place. The defenders numbered ten in all and were armed with long barrelled fowling pieces.
Captain Aston drew his men up in front of the Hall and demanded admission in the name of the King. Alexander Redmond retorted that Aston was welcome to come in provided only that he left his soldiers and weapons outside. A lengthy gun battle ensued. Aston discovered that his cannon were too small to make much impression on the main door. To add to his troubles about half his men abandoned him to pillage the countryside. As the fight dragged on a heavy sea-mist descended on the Hook Peninsula.
Meanwhile, the Irish Confederates under Captain Rossiter and Captain Thomas Roche were still encamped at Shielbaggan. Hearing of the attack they marched rapidly to the aid of the defenders and surprised the attackers under cover of the fog. About thirty of the English escaped to their boats and back to the fort. Captain Aston himself was one of those killed. Many of the others, including Lord Esmonde's two nephews Lieutenants John and Walter Esmonde were taken prisoner. Several of the English prisoners were hanged the following day on Thomas Roche's orders, probably at Ballyhack. On 20 August eleven others were hanged at New Ross including one of the Esmonde brothers (see also, Siege of Duncannon).
Dispossession and change of ownership[edit]
The official Redmond family pedigree (registered in the Ulster Office, Dublin Castle 1763) alleges that Alexander Redmond had to defend the Hall one or even two more times against soldiers of Oliver Cromwell in the autumn of 1649. There is a tradition that the defenders used sacks of wool to block up breaches in the walls created by enemy cannon. These woolsacks and a representation of the Hall can be seen in the coat of arms issued to one of their members in 1763. It is alleged that Alexander Redmond received favourable terms from Cromwell and died in the Hall in 1650 or 1651 after which his surviving family were evicted.
The Loftus family were English planters who had owned land in the neighbourhood from around 1590 when Sir Dudley Loftus was granted the lands around Kilcloggan. Nicholas Loftus acquired the Manor of Fethard-on-Sea in 1634 and Fethard Castle became the family residence. After the end of Cromwell's campaign Nicholas Loftus was given extensive lands in the south of County Wexford and purchased the Hall from 'several Adventurers and soldiers', but it was only in 1666 when his son Henry moved to the Hall from Dungulph that it became the principal residence of the Loftus family. To establish the new name of his property he had the following inscription inscribed in stone on the entrance piers at Portersgate: ' Henry Loftus of Loftus Hall Esq. 1680'. Nonetheless, the old name remained in use till the end of the century. In 1684 Henry Loftus carried out extensive repairs to the Hall, which presumably needed repairing after the turbulent events of the previous decades. The Loftus family rose in the peerage over the following centuries. In 1800 the then owner of the Hall, the first Earl of Ely, previously Baron Loftus of Loftus Hall, was created Marquess of Ely.It was his descendant, the 4th Marquess, who demolished the old Hall and built the present house, in about 1870.
The Redmond family had disputed the claim of the Loftus family in court but without success. In 1684 they were compensated with lands in the Barony of Ballaghkeene in the north of County Wexford. Some of their descendants joined the movement of the Wild Geese and served in a number of foreign armies most notably that of France. Others were involved in banking and politics, and became a prominent local political dynasty in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries in support of the Irish Party of Isaac Butt and Charles Stuart Parnell. The most famous of these was John Redmond who led the party till his death in 1918.
Ghost story[edit]
Charles Tottenham and his family came to mind the mansion in 1766 while the Loftus family were away on business. Charles Tottenham, his wife and daughter, Anne, were all taking care of the mansion.
Charles came for a long stay in the house with his second wife, and his daughter Anne from his first marriage. During a storm, a ship unexpectedly arrived at the Hook Peninsula, which was not far from the mansion. A young man was welcomed into the mansion. Anne and the young man became very close. One night, the family and mysterious man were in the Card room playing cards. In the game, each player received 3 cards apart from Anne who was only dealt 2 by the mystery man. A butler serving the Tottenham family at the table was just about to question the man when Anne bent down to pick another card from the floor which she must have dropped. It is said that when Anne bent over to pick up the card, she looked beneath the table to see that the mysterious man had a cloven foot.
It was then that Anne stood up and said to the man you have a cloven foot and the man went up through the roof, leaving behind a large hole in the ceiling.Soon Anne became mentally ill. It is believed that the family were ashamed of Anne and locked her away in her favourite room where she would be happy yet out of everyone's view which was known as the Tapestry Room. She refused food and drink and sat with her knees under her chin looking out the Tapestry Room window across the sea to where Dunmore East is today waiting for her mysterious stranger to return until she died in the Tapestry Room in 1775. It is said that when she died, they could not straighten her body as her muscles had seized and she was buried in the same sitting position in which she had died.
A rumour states that the hole could never be properly repaired, and it is alleged that even to this day, there is still a certain part of the ceiling which is slightly different from the rest. Meanwhile it was believed that the stranger with the cloven hoof returned to the house and caused persistent poltergeist activity. A number of Protestant clergymen apparently tried and failed to put a stop to this. The family, who were themselves Protestants, eventually called on Father Thomas Broaders (a Catholic priest, who was also a tenant on the Loftus Hall estate) to exorcise the house.
The apparent success of Father Broaders' exorcism did not end the ghostly visitations at Loftus Hall. The ghost of a young woman, presumed to be Anne Tottenham, was reported to have made frequent appearances in the Hall and has been reported to have been seen on the tour, opened in 2011.
Interest in the ghost story has remained strong and many aspects of the story seem to have attached themselves to the house. Also mentioned in a documentary about the mansion many years later after the last owners had gone had said that there were reports from staff that had previously worked at the mansion, that they have seen Anne's ghost walk down the stairs, and that horses can be heard around the building.