Charleville Castle

Charleville Castle rises from old woodland on the edge of Tullamore in the Irish midlands. The estate passed to the Bury family in the 17th century, and Charles William Bury, later 1st Earl of Charleville, commissioned the architect Francis Johnston to build a romantic Gothic Revival castle, constructed between 1800 and 1812. It is considered one of the finest buildings of its kind in Ireland, with battlements, towers and soaring interiors, including a dining room ceiling designed by William Morris; Lord Byron is said to have partied there.

The family’s fortunes were uneven, and the castle was opened and shut repeatedly. It was left empty after 1912, when Colonel Charles Howard-Bury, the explorer who led the 1921 Everest reconnaissance, moved to Belvedere House, and by 1968 its roof had been removed. Restoration began in 1973 and has continued since under a charitable trust run largely by volunteers, with tours, festivals, “fright nights” and film shoots helping to pay for repairs.

The castle’s best-known ghost is Harriet, and behind her is a real child. Lady Harriet Hugh Adelaide Bury, born in 1854, was the second daughter of the 3rd Earl of Charleville; orphaned by 1859, she and her four siblings were brought up at Charleville by their uncle Alfred Bury. In 1861, aged seven, she was coming back from the nursery after washing her hands when she tried to slide down the highly polished banister of the great staircase, lost her balance and fell – an accident recorded in newspaper cuttings of the time now held by Offaly Archives. Ghost websites usually date it to April 8, 1861, and make her eight; the archive gives only the year and her age as seven. Visitors report feeling a chill on the stairs and glimpsing a small girl skipping past. Other reports describe figures in the halls and voices in empty rooms, and the castle has been featured on Most Haunted, Scariest Places on Earth and Ghost Hunters International, sometimes being billed as the most haunted building in Europe.

A little girl seen skipping on the main staircase, a chill on the stairs, cold spots, footsteps and voices, and shadowy figures in the halls — reported by volunteers, visitors, psychics and paranormal TV crews.

The great staircase and the hall below it (Harriet), and the upper floors and long corridors of the castle; the surrounding Charleville Forest has its own folklore.

Charleville Castle has been a location for Becoming Jane (2007), Northanger Abbey (2007), The Green Knight and the TV series Reign, has hosted music festivals, and has been photographed by Simon Marsden for his books on haunted places.