Is this Wexford castle Ireland's most haunted house?

Isolated on the Hook Peninsula in Co. Wexford, Loftus Hall is said to have been haunted by the devil and by the ghost of a young woman.

Is Loftus Hall in Co. Wexford Ireland's most haunted house? 

The mansion, with a long history of ghostly occurrences and misery, opened its doors to the public for the first time in 30 years in 2012. Would you be brave enough to take the tour?

Ghostly occurrences at Loftus House

In August 2014, a tourist snapped a shot of a ghostly female figure in the grounds. Thomas Beavis, 21, from Lewisham, snapped this shot while he was on the tour.

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A trick of the light or the ghost of a little girll?

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It wasn’t until he’d left the Loftus Hall grounds that he noticed the figure – who they believe is the spirit of little Anne Tottenham – and the face of an old lady at the window.

Loftus Hall is a 22-bedroom period mansion on Hook Peninsula in County Wexford. The isolated house is set on 60 acres, overlooking a lonely stretch of the South East coast. Since it was abandoned over three decades ago, the grand building has only had structural repairs.

Owner Aidan Quigley now hosts guided interactive tours which he says are not for the fainthearted.

So spooky is the atmosphere that it comes as no surprise that Loftus Hall was the filming location for this terrifying horror film, "The Lodgers."

The haunted history of Loftus House

Built over the remains of Redmond Hall, the home of the Redmond family since around 1350, in 1666 it became the home of the Loftus family and was renamed Loftus Hall.

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Even the movie looks too spooky for us!

The ghostly tours are based on the story of Anne Tottenham and a visitor to the house in the 18th century whose body, during a game of cards, went ‘through the roof,’ leaving a hole in the ceiling which is visible to this day and left young Anne in a state of terror.

She was put into a room known as the Tapestry Room to rest, and it is here that she stayed completely silent until her death in 1775.

Over the years since, servants have claimed to have seen a dark, mysterious figure roaming the halls, causing disturbances.

The Loftus family abandoned the house in the early years of the 20th century when it was bought by the Sisters of Providence and turned into a convent and school for girls. It changed ownership again in 1983 when Michael Deveraux transformed the building into a hotel, but this too was abandoned in the 1990s and the Hall remained empty until a few years ago. 

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Loftus Hall is now open for tours for those brave enough to walk its haunted halls 

The tour allows younger children to trick or treat with Grimmelhook the Witch in her cottage made from sweets.

For children aged eight and older, there is a climbing wall and archery instruction as well as a pets corner.

Grown-ups are offered the chance to learn more about Loftus Hall’s history.

And in the run-up to Halloween, tours and even a spooky Lockdown are offered where you can spend the night in the hall on the lookout for ghosts 

If a Lockdown seems like too much for your nerves to handle, a 50-minute Halloween tour is also planned for the evening with the option to take a kids tour, a family tour, or one designed specifically for adults. 

Quigley also plans to let the house out for weddings and private functions. More details are available at www.loftushall.com.

Have you visited Loftus Hall? Had a spooky encounter? Let us know about it in the comments section, below. *A version of this article was originally published in October 2014.