Ireland is an ancient land dotted with beautiful scenery, historic towns, and lively folklore filled with leprechauns, fairies, and strange monsters. Therefore, it is unsurprising that many of the towns and cities of the country have their own ghosts and many of these are associated with Haunted Mansions and houses and other places where visitors can now stay. So where are the top places to stay overnight where a spot of ghost hunting may be possible?

Galway

The Renvyle House Hotel was bought by Irish doctor and poet Oliver St John Gogarty in 1917 but he was unaware at the time that it came with more than just beautiful architecture and grounds. Gogarty himself recorded ghostly encounters including footsteps approaching his bedroom door when he investigated there was no one there. Candles were blown out by phantom breezes and he even experienced the phenomena of someone sitting on him when in bed, weighing him down.

Dublin

The ghost of the Shelbourne Hotel was once investigated by noted ghost hunter Hans Holzer and his wife, British medium Sybil Lee. The pair were staying in the hotel when they heard a little girl crying. Sybil asked what was wrong and the child said she was frightened so Sybil invited her into their room.

Though no one was visible, the pair could feel someone climb into their bed and a woolly material brush her arm the same arm was completely numb the next morning. That evening Sybil spoke to the ghost who said she was called Mary Masters and she was seven. She had been ill and was searching for her older sister Sophie. Research showed that she might have lived in the houses that the hotel now stands in place of.

Birr

Birr is a town in County Offaly and just a few miles outside is the village of Kinnity, home to a castle that looks like it should be haunted and is - Kinnity Castle Hotel. The first castle to occupy the site was knocked down in 1209 and rebuilt by the Normans who also established an Augustinian Priory nearby. In 1630, it was rebuilt again by William Carroll, nearer to the abbey, and later confiscated by the English, who gave it to Thomas Winter.

Monaghan

Castle Leslie is found north of the town of Monaghan near the village of Glaslough and was bought in the 1600s by John Leslie, Bishop of Clogher. The castle was rebuilt and restored in the 1800s, remaining in the family until the present day, the owner now being the daughter of Desmond Leslie, one of the last surviving wartime Spitfire pilots.

Tralee

Ballyseede Castle started off life as the chief garrison of the Earls of Desmond, the Fitzgerald family. They were famous for refusing to swear loyalty to the crown and starting the Geraldine Wars which were fought intermittently for three centuries and ended with the beheading of the 16th Earl, Gerald. His head was later shown off in a cage on London Bridge. The castle then passed to Robert Blennerhassett whose family occupied it until 1966.