Most Haunted Places On Earth

20

Montpelier Hill: The Stewards House, or Killakee House, was built around 1765 by the Conolly family as a hunting lodge. The house has a reputation for being haunted. Stories tell of a particularly large ghostly black cat. The best documented account occurred between 1968 and 1970 when the Evening Herald and Evening Press newspapers carried a number of reports regarding a Mrs. Margaret O'Brien and her husband Nicholas, a retired Garda superintendent, who were converting the house into an arts centre. During the conversion, tradesmen employed on the work site began complaining of ghosts. One night, a friend of the O'Briens, artist Tom McAssey, and two workmen were confronted by a spectral figure and a black cat with glowing red eyes. McAssey painted a portrait of the cat which hung in the house for several years afterwards. Although locals were skeptical of the reports, further apparitions were reported, most notably that of an Indian gentleman, and of two nuns called Blessed Margaret and Holy Mary who had taken part in black masses on Montpelier Hill. There were also reports of incorporeal ringing bells and poltergeist activity. In 1970, an RTÉ television crew recorded a documentary about the house. In the documentary, a clairvoyant called Sheila St. Clair communicated with the spirits of the house through automatic writing. In 1971, a plumber working in the house discovered a grave with a skeleton of a small figure, most likely that of a child or, perhaps, the body of the dwarf alleged to have been sacrificed by the members of the Hell Fire Club. The house operated as a restaurant in the 1990s before closing in 2001; it is now a private residence.