Loftus Hall, 'Ireland's most haunted house', is up for sale
Sarah Slater
Loftus Hall, reputed to be Ireland’s most haunted house, is up for sale again after extensive renovation.
The Co Wexford property, which overlooks the Hook peninsula and lighthouse, is a three-storey house with a total internal area of 2,461sq/m standing on 68 acres along with its own private beach.
Developer Paddy McKillen Jar is now abandoning the building and his plans to turn it into a luxurious hotel after doling out €1.75 million through his company Oakmount in 2022.
A second phase for the development was envisioned, which included the addition of a 56-bedroom hotel block, a gym and spa, dedicated wedding facilities, 33 standalone garden cottages, and 10 eco pods placed along the perimeter of the property.
The protected structure with its 22 bedrooms Loftus Hall, was sold in 2011 for €300,000 according to the property price register.
Haunted tours of the house have attracted thousands of visitors to the area, especially around Halloween. The mansion is the subject of various legends, including that the devil visited for a card game and shot through the roof upon being rumbled.
The Quigley brother’s sold the Georgian pile to Mr McKillen Jnr and over their 10-year long tenure the Quigleys said 500,000 visits were paid to the property.
The property was previously sold in October 2008 to a Galway-based businessman for around €1.7 million.
Its credits include the 2017 Gothic horror movie, The Lodgers, starring Spanish actress Charlotte Vega and Game of Thrones’ Eugene Simon, and paranormal broadcasts.
It was built by the Marquis of Ely in 1870 on the ruins of Redmond Hall, which was in existence since 1350 and was purchased by the Loftus Family in the 1600s.
During the 18th century, Charles Tottenham came to live in Loftus Hall and this is how the legend of Loftus Hall came to originate.
According to legend a stranger who was looking for accommodation on a stormy night was invited in by the Tottenhams to play cards.
During the card game a lady bent over to retrieve a fallen card and was shocked to discover a cloven foot. It is said that the stranger vanished through the ceiling in a puff of smoke.
Loftus Hall was then exorcised by Father Thomas Broaders. He later became Parish Priest of the parishes of the Hook and Ramsgrange for almost 50 years.
The building in which the legend is associated was levelled to the ground in 1870 and the present day mansion was erected.
The mansion was also previously run as a country hotel and convent run by the Benedictine and Sisters of Providence order of nuns who established it at the turn of the 20th Century. It later became a hotel in the 1980s and 1990s.
The house was part of the inspiration for author Eoin Colfer’s Fowl Manor in the Artemis Fowl books. Colfer worked at Loftus Hall as a teenager when it was a country house hotel.
Colliers Auctioneers reportedly have the sale of the property, according to The Irish Times.
