Ireland's most Haunted Castle
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By Gearóid Ó Broin
In Ireland's Own Summer Annual 1988
Leap Castle, between Ballybritt and Clareen on the road to Kinnitty is regarded as Ireland's most haunted castle. The O'Carrolls, princes of Ely, built it as their main stronghold in 1250 A.D. It was erected on a most commanding site facing the Great Pass through the Slieve Bloom Mountains to the province of Munster. It has a massive tower and walls nine feet thick. The earliest recorded name of the locality is Léim UÍ Bhanáin (O'Bannon's Leap). The Bannons were the "secondary chieftains" of the territory, being subject to the ruling O'Carrolls. Gory murders are said to have taken place there - notably at a window high up in the tower.
The Annals of the Four Masters record that the Earl of Kildare tried unsuccessfully to seize the castle in 1513 A.D. Fiercely attacking it three years later he managed to partially demolish it. But by 1557 the O'Carrolls regained possession. Some years later the Earl of Essex besieged it. But greater misfortunes were yet to come!
Following the death of Mulrooney O'Carroll in 1532, bitter internecine struggles plagued the O'Carroll clan. Horrid fratricide murders took place through bitter rivalry for the chieftainship. Brother treacherously slayed brother within the castle confines. The "Agents of the Crown" were not slow to take full advantage of the O'Carroll's deplorable disunity, and promptly annexed their lands to the "territories of the Crown".
According to local tradition a daughter of the O'Carroll Chieftain fell in love with an English Captain named Darby who was held prisoner in the O'Carrolls in the castle dungeon. She smuggled supplies of food to him, and eventually arranged his escape.
As the lovers stealthily made their way out her brother chanced to meet them on the narrow staircase, and noisily raised the alarm. Darby promptly plunged his sword through the body of the youthful O'Carroll. The escapers then leapt to freedom from the battlements. Through the death of her brother she became heiress of Leap Castle which thus came into the possession of the Darby family, following her marriage to the English captain.
Jonathan Darby, their son, who eventually became "Titulado of Leap" in 1659, was an avowed Royalist. During the Civil War he is said to have hidden his precious treasures in the grounds of the castle, aided by two servants whom he subsequently murdered to prevent them revealing the hiding place. From 1674 Darby served as. High Sheriff of Co. Offaly, and eleven years later he died at Leap. His descendants continued to maintain possession of it. During the mid 18th century his great grandson, also named Jonathan Darby, had the castle remodelled, giving a Gothic appearance to the windows and doorways of the medieval keep. The castle was badly burnt during the turbulent era of 1922.
Leap Castle now has a weird reputation for frightening hauntings. An evil-smelling creature, half human and half beast, exuding an abominable stench, is said to roam its lower regions. Curious locals are said to have experienced them unwittingly. Moreover, the gruesome discovery of heaps of human bones on the floor of the wailed-up dungeon or oubliette, and of hooks (used for executions or hangings) in an adjacent field, known locally as "Hangman's Acre", have given added credence to the tales of these manifestations. There is certainly an extraordinary eeriness about the place which intrudes on the senses as one approaches the tower. Leap Castle now belongs to an Australian who plans to restore it and so dispel the obnoxious spectre.
It was inevitable that the descendants of the Derby-O'Carroll elopement would find themselves in action on a wider stage than the Slieve Bloom Mountains and so they did. Henry Desterre Derby (above left) probably a great grandson of the original Derby of Leap, became an Admiral in command of H.M.S. Bellerophon which saw action under Nelson against Napoleon's fleet in the Battle of the Nile in 1798 where he was wounded. Nelson's personal get-well letter is an interesting sidelight to the Offaly man's reputation. Henry Desterre Derby's nephew John Nelson Derby who lived from 1800 to 1882, was a deeply religious man and a devotee of Cardinal Newman to such an extent that he founded the Plymouth Brethren
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