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Leap Castle is located in Ireland, and according to legend, it was built on a Druidic site. The O’Carroll family once lived here, and they were vicious murderers, who would throw  the body of their victims down a hole in the wall that was called an “oubilette.” Once the bodies went into the hall they were basically forgotten about. One day, one of the O’Carroll’s murdered his own brother who was a priest. The reason behind this was that he had started the mass that day too promptly. Due to this, the top floor of the castle is referred to as the Bloody Chapel.

There is a small windowless room below the oubilette that was the final resting place for a countless number of victims who were originally put in a hidden dungeon. The room had a drop floor, where prisoners were pushed into the room where they fell to their deaths. Most of the time they were killed by falling on the spike that was sticking out below, or death by starvation if they missed it, as they laid next to the other rotting corpses. Around the year 1900, workers that were hired to clean the room found hundreds of human skeletons that were piled on top of each other.

By the end of the cleaning, three cartloads of skeletons had been used to take everything out. Some of these skeletons are believed to be that of Scottish mercenaries that were hired by O’Carroll to kill for them, but when the time came for their payment, they would be killed themselves. Among the skeletons, the workers also found a pocket watch from the 1840s, which may hint that this room was still in use up until the mid 19th century. In 1659, the O’Carroll family gave ownership of the castle to the Darby family through marriage. The Darby’s turned Leap Castle into their home and made vast improvements on the structure.

Jonathan and Mildred Darby were in control of the castle in the late-19th century and were about to raise a family there. However, the practice of the occult was popular during that day, and Mildred was curious and decided to see what is was about. She allegedly felt a spirit put its hand on her shoulder, and it appeared as a thin and shadowy inhuman creature. The smell was overwhelmingly disgusting, similar to that of a corpse that was decomposing. This spirit is believed to be a terrifying and evil one. It is also so dangerous because of its unpredictability.

The Darby family lived in the castle into 1922, when it was bombed and looted. The castle was in ruins for decades until the 1970s, when an Australian woman bought the property. This woman then hired a white witch from Mexico to exercise the evil spirits from the castle. After a long period of time in the Bloody Chapel, the witch came out and said that these spirits would no longer be evil, but they wished to remain here in peace. The castle was then sold to its current owners in the 1990s. They started a restoration on the castle but it was delayed when the owner suffered from a freak accident. A year later, restoration was still taking place, and again with another freak accident the owner was hurt. However, everything has now been restored and Leap Castle seems to have moved on from its dark past.

(Source: Belanger, Jeff. Encyclopedia of Haunted Places. 2005.)

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