Gillhall Estate
Gillhall Estate is located in Dromore County Down in Northern Ireland. It once stood as a vast estate of land that included farm buildings, and a house that was built between 1670 and 1680 by a man named John Magill. In a sad twist of events, the house was almost completely destroyed in a fire in 1969. The fire left the house unstable, and the Territorial Army was forced to destroy the rest of the house. Many of the rooms inside were extremely large, and they required two fire places on each end to keep it warm. There were also very intricate carvings throughout the house as well.
It was famous for being one of the most haunted houses in all of Ireland. The legend of the house dates back centuries ago, to when children who lived there made a vow that whoever died first would come to the other one in spirit to prove that there was life after death. The names of these children were Lady Nichola Beresford, John Power, and Lord Tyrone. On one night in 1693, Lady Beresford was visited by the ghost of Lord Tyrone, who came to tell her that there was a life after death. He then made predictions to her to further prove his existence.
Some of these predictions included that her son would marry his niece, and in turn becoming the heiress of Curraghmore. He also predicted that she would die on her 47th birthday, which did indeed come true. From 1910 on, the house remained deserted besides the small part of the house where the owner’s land steward and his family could live. In 1945, two American soldiers came to the steward, and they told him that one of their grandmother’s said that they could find a pane of glass on one of the windows contained a verse on it. Sure enough, they did find it, and no one knew about it before these men showed up. Even though the house no longer exists, its ghostly and mysterious legend still lives on today.
(Source: Belanger, Jeff. Encyclopedia of Haunted Places. 2005.)
