Malahide Castle in Ireland has a long history of ghosts and tragic events. Since 1171, it has been occupied by the Talbot family.
Many Irish castles have ghosts, and Malahide Castle is no exception. When Oliver Cromwell came and conquered Ireland, he put a man named Miles Corbet in charge of Malahide Castle. After the Restoration, Miles Corbett was made to pay the penalty for the many crimes he had committed during his occupancy, which included the desecration of the chapel of an old abbey near the Castle.
He was executed by being hanged, drawn and quartered and his grisly ghost now haunts Malahide Castle. When it first appears, they say it seems to be a perfectly whole soldier, dressed in armour. But then, right before your very eyes, it falls apart, splitting into four separate pieces. It is a grim re-inactment of what happened to his body when he was quarted and anyone who has seen the ghost has described it as a very unpleasant experience.
In the 16th Century, the Talbot family had a jester named Puck. He was four feet tall and his job was to keep watch and sound the alarm in case of attack. He lived in a turret of the Castle, now known as Puck’s Staircase. According to legend, he fell in love with a beautiful woman named Lady Elenora Fitzgerald, who was imprisoned in Malahide Castle at the time. Knowing they could never be together, Puck became depressed and hanged himself from the Minstrel’s Gallery, overlooking the Castle’s Great Hall. His dead body was found dangling at the end of a rope.
But that wasn’t the last the Talbot family would see of Puck. Ever since his tragic death, his ghost has ghost has haunted Malahide Castle. The ghostly dwarf is often seen passing through the Great Hall and his wrinkled face has been spotted peeking through the ivy covering the turret walls. In 1976, the contents of the castle were being sold and a man who was working there looked up suddenly to see a small ghostly figure standing on the staircase. The Talbot family believe that Puck is still doing his duties as a sentry, centuries after his unfortunate demise.
For many years, the painting of a very beautiful lady, in a flowing white dress, hung in the Great Hall of the Castle. Nobody knows her identity, but from time to time her ghost has been seen emerging from the painting and wandering through the Castle in the dead of night. She has become known as the White Lady and it is believed that she could be the beautiful woman with whom poor Puck fell in love.
Malahide Castle is also said to be haunted by the ghost of Sir Walter Hussey, the son of Baron Galtrim. On the day of his wedding in the 15th century he was killed in battle. His apparition is supposed to wander the castle, groaning and pointing to his fatal spear wound.
The last two ghosts are a married couple, Lady Maud Plunkett and her third husband, the Lord Chief of Justice. This was Mauds third marriage and it is considered that by this time she had become a somewhat shewish and nagging wife. She supposedly seen chasing her poor husband through the corridors of the castle.
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