Post by Joanna on Dec 2, 2014 16:38:35 GMT -5
Haunted Irish Castle for Sale
There has been a genre trend on television in recent years for US and UK made "reality" programs that follow ghost hunters at work. These productions usually involve a duo or trio of ghost hunters visiting "haunted" properties where they wait until nightfall when (for some reason) they switch out all the lights, turn on their flashlights and huddle together in the dark to peer overhead and into corners and repeatedly ask one another: "Did you hear that? Did you hear that?"
To improve their prospects, the ghost hunters could do worse than pay a visit to Portlick Castle on the shores of Lough Ree in County Westmeath, Ireland, which is widely reputed to be haunted by a ghost known as the “Blue Lady.” She has been seen by the owner gliding down the staircase of the great castle and over the years, she has been spotted by many guests who have excitedly recorded their experiences in various online forums. Either the Blue Lady gets around – Kilkenny Castle, Monkstown Castle in Cork, the Sharon Rectory in County Donegal and the Workhouse Museum in Derry are also haunted by the Blue Lady – or the Irish just prefer “blue” ladies to those of other colors. Portlick is also reputed to be haunted by the phantom of a prisoner who has been seen in the dungeons below.
For many years run as a guest house and more recently offered for private lettings, historic Westmeath Castle is now on offer (spirits included) for sale for just under €2m – $2.35 million to be exact.
Portlick's history dates to the Norman invasion and the 12th century and it would be a shame if it didn't have its share of unquiet specters. And with an authentic dank dungeon, battlements, an 800-year-old well and views across a lake, it supplies perfect scenery for medieval-flavored drama. For most of its history, Portlick has been inhabited by just two families. The story goes that a castle was built on the site by Sir Henry de Leon in the 12th century under the charter of King John. The four-story tower house that stands in this location now is thought to have gone up later, in the 15th century, though incorporating the earlier structure.
The De Leons (who later changed their name to “Dillon”) lived at Portlick until 1696, when they made the mistake of backing the losing side in the Williamite wars. The property was confiscated from Garrett Dillon, a Jacobite, and one of the signatories of the Treaty of Limerick, and was obliged to flee the country.
In 1703, the dwelling was sold to a Reverend Robert Smythe, and the Smyth family continued in residence until the mid-20th century. In 1844, Frideswide Maria Smythe of Portlick distinguished herself by marrying Richard Brydges Beechey, one of the most celebrated marine painters in the history of Irish art. Together the couple went on to distinguish themselves by producing a daughter, also named Frideswide, who was a chess champion and author of two well-regarded books on the subject. There was no one to inherit from the last Smythe, Harriet, as her stepson had been killed in World War II and so the castle went out of the family in 1955.
Around the year 1800, the Smyths added a two-story extension as a more comfortable residence. A fire gutted the building in 1861 and, in the process of refurbishing it, the Smyths threw up another castellated tower to the corner of the Georgian wing to tie the place together. As the National Inventory of Architectural Heritage remarks, the result "illustrates changing architectural tastes and styles over a 400-year period.”
Portlick was bought at auction in 1989 by Luke Whitington, an Australian poet, art collector and businessman, who restored it and added two new wings. So it's medieval, it's Georgian, it's Victorian and it's late-20th century.
Inside, too, the castle is an eclectic mix of styles. There's a minstrels' gallery with what's described as a 13th century floor-to-ceiling fireplace. The drawing room is Victorian and the dining room is Edwardian. And for ghost-lovers, there's a 12th-century stone dungeon with vaulted ceilings. The upper floors contain 10 bedrooms – four big ones on the first floor and another six on the upper two floors – all with en suite bathrooms. The recently-added wings contain a meeting room and a small concert hall. Above the concert room is a terrace accessed from the minstrels' gallery, with reproduction battlements from which there is a view out over Lough Ree.
In addition to the main house, there's also a converted two-story coach house with three bedrooms, a living room with fireplace and a separate kitchen. A large complex of outbuildings is arranged around a courtyard south of the castle. There was approval to turn these into six dwellings which has now lapsed, but could possibly be renewed. In the 2000s, the castle began to be let for weddings and then ended up at the center of a court battle. The Victory Christian Fellowship claimed it as an asset in the course of acquiring loans from the Bank of Scotland and was reportedly obliged to pay €350,000 ($433,249) in damages to Portlick's owners in 2011.
Once a 12,000-acre estate, Portlick's grounds now amount to a rather more manageable 27 acres running down toward the lake. Of those, 19 acres are a mixture of pasture and woodland with oak and poplar trees and the other eight acres are marshland.
To the west is an ancient sort of canal that once ran from Portlick harbor to the inner lakes. The selling agents say it was surveyed in 1996 and, if dredged, could be turned into a marina for 400 boats.
Source: Eithne Tynan, The Independent, November 21, 2014.