Loftus Hall
Ghost/Paranormal
Monday 5th, July 2021
Located on the Hook Peninsula, a peninsula in county Wexford, Ireland. Loftus Hall is a large mansion which is located near to Hook Lighthouse which is on the tip of the Hook Peninsula.
Loftus Hall is one of a number of places in Ireland which has a backstory that involves a visit from the Devil himself.
The Legend has it that there was a storm at sea one night with rough seas and on this night a stranger on horseback arrived at Loftus Hall after his ship was driven into nearby Slade Harbour.
This late night stranger was invited in by the Tottenham family and stayed a number of days. The young Lady Anne Tottenham was very taken by this strange visitor and fell head over heels for him.
On one of the nights the stranger was staying at the hall a game of cards was being played when Lady Anne dropped a card and while bending down to pick up the misplaced card she noticed that the stranger had cloven hoofs instead of feet. At the moment the stranger became aware of what Lady Anne had seen, the stranger is said to have shot up through the roof in a ball of flames.
Following this game of cards, Lady Anne is said to have never recovered from what she saw that night and went mad with the sight she saw. The Tottenham family locked Lady Anne in the tapestry room for fear of anyone seeing Lady Anne in the state she was and sadly Lady Anne passed away relatively young in the tapestry room.
Family servants and other family members are said to have seen Lady Anne wandering through the house at night after her death so the Tottenham family had the whole house exorcised by a local catholic priest named Father Broaders, the priest was said to be unable to exorcise whatever was in the tapestry room.
To this day some visitors to Loftus Hall report experiences of seeing or feeling a presence in different parts of Loftus Hall.
If we step back a bit to the origins of the current build we find that Loftus hall wasn't the first or only building built on this land. In 1170 a castle was built on the site where Loftus hall sits. This castle was built by the Norman Knight Raymond Les Gros who later adopted the surname Redmond to have more of an Irish identity.
The Redmond family then built the hall in 1350 to replace the castle, the hall became known as Redmond Hall and was under the Redmond family ownership until the 1650s when it was given to the Loftus family as part of the Cromwellian conquest. With this transaction taking place, Redmond Hall became known as Loftus Hall.
The building that stands today as Loftus Hall had heavy renovation between 1872-1879 by the 4th MArquess of Ely, John Wellington Graham Loftus in preparation for a visit from her majesty Queen Victoria, which ended up never happening and the Loftus family were left with a huge debt from all the renovation works.
Following the death of the two residents of Loftus Hall within a year of each other, the estate was bankrupt and put up for sale. Loftus Hall was acquired in 1917 by the Benedictine order of nuns who resided there for 18 years. The hall was then taken over by The Sisters of providence as a school for girls interested in joining the order until the early 1980s.
In 1983 Loftus Hall was purchased by Michael Deveraux who went on to open Loftus Hall as a hotel but it didn't last too long and was closed in the early 1990s.
In late 2011 the Quigley family purchased Loftus Hall from the Deveraux family. With the Quigley family taking ownership of Loftus Hall they intend to bring the hall back to its original beauty after years of the property falling into disrepair.
Loftus Hall is one of a number of places in Ireland which has a backstory that involves a visit from the Devil himself.
The Legend has it that there was a storm at sea one night with rough seas and on this night a stranger on horseback arrived at Loftus Hall after his ship was driven into nearby Slade Harbour.
This late night stranger was invited in by the Tottenham family and stayed a number of days. The young Lady Anne Tottenham was very taken by this strange visitor and fell head over heels for him.
On one of the nights the stranger was staying at the hall a game of cards was being played when Lady Anne dropped a card and while bending down to pick up the misplaced card she noticed that the stranger had cloven hoofs instead of feet. At the moment the stranger became aware of what Lady Anne had seen, the stranger is said to have shot up through the roof in a ball of flames.
Following this game of cards, Lady Anne is said to have never recovered from what she saw that night and went mad with the sight she saw. The Tottenham family locked Lady Anne in the tapestry room for fear of anyone seeing Lady Anne in the state she was and sadly Lady Anne passed away relatively young in the tapestry room.
Family servants and other family members are said to have seen Lady Anne wandering through the house at night after her death so the Tottenham family had the whole house exorcised by a local catholic priest named Father Broaders, the priest was said to be unable to exorcise whatever was in the tapestry room.
To this day some visitors to Loftus Hall report experiences of seeing or feeling a presence in different parts of Loftus Hall.
If we step back a bit to the origins of the current build we find that Loftus hall wasn't the first or only building built on this land. In 1170 a castle was built on the site where Loftus hall sits. This castle was built by the Norman Knight Raymond Les Gros who later adopted the surname Redmond to have more of an Irish identity.
The Redmond family then built the hall in 1350 to replace the castle, the hall became known as Redmond Hall and was under the Redmond family ownership until the 1650s when it was given to the Loftus family as part of the Cromwellian conquest. With this transaction taking place, Redmond Hall became known as Loftus Hall.
The building that stands today as Loftus Hall had heavy renovation between 1872-1879 by the 4th MArquess of Ely, John Wellington Graham Loftus in preparation for a visit from her majesty Queen Victoria, which ended up never happening and the Loftus family were left with a huge debt from all the renovation works.
Following the death of the two residents of Loftus Hall within a year of each other, the estate was bankrupt and put up for sale. Loftus Hall was acquired in 1917 by the Benedictine order of nuns who resided there for 18 years. The hall was then taken over by The Sisters of providence as a school for girls interested in joining the order until the early 1980s.
In 1983 Loftus Hall was purchased by Michael Deveraux who went on to open Loftus Hall as a hotel but it didn't last too long and was closed in the early 1990s.
In late 2011 the Quigley family purchased Loftus Hall from the Deveraux family. With the Quigley family taking ownership of Loftus Hall they intend to bring the hall back to its original beauty after years of the property falling into disrepair.
