Leap Castle and the Bloody O’Carroll Clan
Leap Castle (pronounced ‘lep’) was built by the O’Bannon family between the late 12th and 15th century.
According to legend, the two brothers were at odds with each other over who would inherit the castle. They proposed a friendly competition where the victor would inherit the future castle. The competition was said to be held at the location of the future castle. The competition was pretty straight forward, but not necessarily very clever. They decided they would jump from a large rock, whoever survived the fall would be the victor. Slightly crazy, but again, it’s all according to legend. The winner of the deadly competition, if there even was one, is now lost to history. However, this likely was the reason that the castle was originally known as Leim Ui Bhanain, or Bannon’s Leap.
The O’Bannon clan was very powerful, but they had pledged fealty to the O’Carroll clan (who just happen to be my ancestors). So, when the O’Carroll family decided they wanted the castle, there wasn’t much the O’Bannon clan could do to stop them.
Now, let me just start by saying the O’Carroll clan really earned their moniker, The Bloody O’Carrolls. They were a brutal and fierce clan, constantly struggling for power. The clan moto was “Strong in both Faith and War”. And although they professed to be strong in faith, they weren’t afraid to resort to violence to get what they wanted. They often used the grounds as the site for battles, and a plethora of massacres occurred inside the walls. Think Game of Thrones, but real life.
John O’Carroll is most commonly thought to be the first Prince of Ely who lived at Leap Castle. He was most likely the one who ordered construction of the earliest sections of Leap Castle.
O’Carroll Family Crest
Some years later, the O’Carroll’s clan chief died without naming a successor, and once again, brothers fought brothers over the sizable inheritance of Leap Castle. Teighe ‘One-Eye’ O’Carroll believed that the castle was rightfully his and sought to slay his brother. The brother in question was name Thaddeus and was a Catholic priest. Teighe came into the chapel while Thaddeus was saying Mass. He approached his brother and ran him through, ultimately killing him. The chapel became known as “The Bloody Chapel”. It’s said that you can still see Thaddeus’s spirit roaming the halls of Leap Castle in the dark hours of the morning to this day.
Inside the walls of the Bloody Chapel, there is an oubliette. An oubliette is defined as a secret dungeon with its only access point being a trapdoor in its ceiling. Inside the oubliette of Leap Castle, you’ll find mounted wooden spikes. During an archeological dig in the early 1900’s, they found hundreds upon hundreds of human skeletons impaled on the spikes. Now, there are two theories as to the reasoning of mass grave. Either the Bloody O’Carroll clan launched a mass attack in the chapel and then pushed the corpses into the hidden oubliette, or it was a method for surprise attacks against unsuspecting visitors. Either way, you definitely didn’t want to get on the bad side of the O’Carroll clan.
This next segment I’ll give a trigger warning for. It involves rape and infanticide.
Allegedly, there was a young woman who was held captive by the O’Carrolls and was raped repeatedly. Eventually, she became pregnant. Once she gave birth, the O’Carroll’s killed the child. As one might expect, the young woman was inconsolable. She’s now known as the Red Lady as she is seen at night, wandering the castle in a brilliant red dress with a knife held firm in her hand, looking for the men who killed her baby to exact her revenge upon them.
To understand the next segment of this gruesome story, we’re going to take a little detour to learn more about Druids and Elementals.
In Celtic culture, a druid is known to be a high-ranking religious leader as well as legal authorities, adjudicators, political advisors, medical professionals, and lore-keepers. While they kept no written accounts, they have been referenced back to as far as the 4th century BCE, and the oldest detailed description comes from Julius Caesar’s Commentarii de Bello Gallico around 50 BCE. You can find it here. The legacy of the Druids in one of the most enduring and most mysterious.
Julius Caesar’s Commentarii de Bello Gallico
Now, let’s move on the elemental magic. According to Druid philosophers, everything in the universe is made up of three elements. They are often in some combination with one element being dominant. The three elements are Nwyfre (pronounced NOOiv-ruh), Gwyar (pronounced GOO-yar), and Calas (pronounced CAH-lass).
Nwyfre is an old Welsh word meaning “sky” or “heavens”. This is the source of life and consciousness. Modern druids generally refer to it as the life force and its image in nature is a blue sky.
Gwyar in old Welch literally means blood, but its more common meaning means “fluidity” or “flow”. As an element, it is the source of change, such as motion, growth, and decay. Its image in nature is coursing water.
Calas comes from the Welsh root word caled for “hard”. As an element, it’s the source of form, stability, differentiation, and manifestation. Its image is a stone.
Dominating over the castle’s mortal residents is said to be an Elemental (a conjuration of the elements in deadly form). While the origins of the Elemental are cloaked in mystery, some believe that it was conjured by discontented Druids, and others believe it was summoned by an invading party. Yet, there are others who believe that it may even be a trapped and disturbed spirit of a former resident of the castle. Regardless, it’s a terrifying sight to behold. The Elemental has been described by those unlucky enough to encounter it as a rotting humanoid figure that reeks of decaying flesh.
In the 17th century, there was yet another bloody and violent transition. In 1641, a war began between Ireland and England. The Irish Catholics felt threatened by the expanding power of the anti-Catholic English Parliament and Scottish Covenanters (upholders of the organization of the Scottish Presbyterian Church) at the expense of the King, they insighted a rebellion against the English ad Protestant domination. Which then led to eleven years of warfare. So, when an O’Carroll daughter fell in love with an English prisoner named Darby, it resulted in death. While Darby was being held prisoner, the daughter would sneak him food and they’d plot a way for him to escape, run away together and get married. However, things didn’t go according to plan. Once the daughter managed to help Darby escape, her brother was alerted. As her brother was coming down the stairway, Darby fought and killed him. The O’Carroll son who was killed was the heir to the castle, so when he died, the O’Carroll daughter became the heiress, meaning that Darby would also get to claim Leap Castle.
Even though the couple soon owned the castle, Darby began to slip into a psychotic state. He was obsessive about his money and would go as far as to hide it around the castle, forget where he’d hidden it, and was unable to stop searching for his lost riches. His spirit can still be seen wandering the castle in search of his wealth.
For the next century or so, the Darby family remained in the castle. Mildred Dill married Jonathan Darby in the late 1800s. Mildred had always had an intense fascination with the paranormal and frequently wrote about her experiences with the spirits, séances she had held, and the disturbing past of Leap Castle.
Unfortunately, the castle was abandoned in 1922. The Darby family had moved out for fear of their lives when the Irish were fighting for their independence from the English. Sadly, the castle was burned shortly after their escape.
In 1974, a restoration project was started to rehabilitate Leap Castle to its former beauty. It’s now privately owned, but paranormal investigators are still allowed to visit. The current owner offers tours and is immeasurably knowledgeable about the bloody history of the Castle.
Leap Castle
Works Cited
Greer, J. M. (2003). Ancient Order of Druids in America. Retrieved from aoda.org: https://aoda.org/publications/articles-on-druidry/threedruidelements/
O'Carroll, S. (2021, February 9). Teige Caoch O'Carroll (abt. 1522 - abt. 1553). Retrieved from WikiTree: https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/O'Carroll-95
Raphael, S. (2018, July 26). The Violent, Bloody History of Ireland's Leap Castle. Retrieved from The Lineup: https://the-line-up.com/leap-castle
