Kilkenny ghosts

Einhard

I was recently abroad on a holiday, and visiting a few cities and towns along the way, I was struck by the fact that tales of ghosts and ghouls and hauntings were often quite prominent on the tourist trails there. Towns and streets were haunted, old buildings had resident spooks, and every pub or inn i stopped at seemed to have a resident ghost. I felt it all added to the interest of whatever place I had stopped in, and was wondering why Kilkenny doesn't have the same. We're an old city, and have lots of historical buildings, but I know of no "iconic" ghostly figures. Obviously I heard ghost stories, but they were always vague and general, neither concerning a specific location or a specific figure. So my questions are: i. do we have resident ghosts in Kilkenny- and by that, I don't mean stories told by your granny, and known only to you and her. ii. Should we make more of them as part of the tourist experience in Kilkenny. iii. Why don't we make more of them in the city, and in Ireland in general?

Captain Havoc

Are there any ghosts in the castle, does Alice Kytler's ghost haunt the place? I don't know of any prominent ghost stories myself.

Einhard

Alice Kytler escaped, apparently to England, so we're safe from her vengeful spirit. Her maid Petronella was burned at the stake. Seems she has enough on her plate though to be pestering the town.

There was a "ghost" sighting by a guard in the castle grounds a few years back. It was on the front of the People. That's about it, and I'd be pretty familiar with the place. There was never any mention of ghosts on any tour I was on, which is a bit odd considering its antiquity.

Ghost stories amuse me, - it's always some big castle or manor house or stately home which seems to have a ghost, - is there some reason why ghosts dont hang out in the semi-detached estates or small county council cottages? Snobby lot those ghosts:P.

maccored

theres a book on kilkenny ghosts - not a mention of castles or big manor houses - http://www.thehistorypress.ie/product.asp?P_ID=560

maccored

Alice Kytler was a murderer who married and then poisoned wealthy men. She was classed as a witch as that was the handiest way to get rid of her.

Einhard wrote: »

Alice Kytler escaped, apparently to England, so we're safe from her vengeful spirit. Her maid Petronella was burned at the stake. Seems she has enough on her plate though to be pestering the town.

Einhard

maccored wrote: »

Alice Kytler was a murderer who married and then poisoned wealthy men. She was classed as a witch as that was the handiest way to get rid of her.

Or else she was a weathy landowner who fell foul of the Church and was deemed a witch as that was the easiest way to get rid of her. As happened to countless other women during the Middle Ages.

Captain Havoc

Einhard wrote: »

Or else she was a weathy landowner who fell foul of the Church and was deemed a witch as that was the easiest way to get rid of her. As happened to countless other women during the Middle Ages.

I thought she killed multiple husbands?

maccored

Einhard wrote: »

Or else she was a weathy landowner who fell foul of the Church and was deemed a witch as that was the easiest way to get rid of her. As happened to countless other women during the Middle Ages.

I agree

maccored

Captain Havoc wrote: »

I thought she killed multiple husbands?

She did that too - but she was also a wealthy woman, something the church wasnt too fond of.

Duiske

maccored wrote: »

theres a book on kilkenny ghosts - not a mention of castles or big manor houses - http://www.thehistorypress.ie/product.asp?P_ID=560

Description here

Modern tales of poltergeists in housing estates, phantom voices, ghostly nannies, white ladies and banshees - this isn't the stuff of oft repeated folklore; these are freshly discovered ghostly tales from the people of Kilkenny. Ideal for the paranormal enthusiast, the local historian, the Kilkenny diaspora abroad and anyone who enjoys a good, scary story, Haunted Kilkenny is a book for everyone. ...

Might give this a go as it's only €8.67 and free post at that uk site.

RobertKK

You would have had to be an idiot ot marry Alice given her husbands always died under mysterious circumstances.
It was probably good news for local men when she had to flee given she seems to have been able to put men under her spell...

maccored

25% off at the book depository - http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/Haunted-Kilkenny-Cormac-Strain/9781845887483?b=-2&t=-11

Einhard

Well, Alice Kytler was accused of killing her husbands, and convicted by a man-only court in a deeply misogynistic society, so I don't think we can be absolutely sure on that point!!

That book on modern paranormal activity is interesting, but I'm really interested in whether Kilkenny has any traditional hauntings. Seems a tad odd to me that a place with such a history hasn't a single resident ghoul.

maccored

shankill castle on the carlow kilkenny road has a great story about a curse, gates that dont close and a dead priest - but none of it is backed up by history (bar the death of the priest). the gates etc were cemented up by the council, and the apparently grown over driveway to the gates never existed (it was built as a 'vista').

Silverscott

An honest city that does'nt want to lie about ghosts.
No such thing with all the technology we have nowadays you think they would of got something by now.
There is a spook group in kk that follow all these ghost trails etc
Can think of the name.

maccored

i think its K.I.P.S they're called

builttospill

Here's the mini-feature made by the K.P.I.S.S lads. There are other shorter videos on youtube which they have produced as well.

Scary stuff!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwLZTRF2eTo

Threadhead

Trail Kilkenny have been developing a Ghost Trail for the city and county for a while now and hopefully it will see the light of day soon. They piloted part of it located just at Shankill Castle in Paulstown last year (a place with some proper scary stories).

The county has loads of ghost stories and the city has even more of them. The new costumed medieval tour of the city touches on quite a few of them.

S28382

Go out at round about 3/4am on Sunday morning and you will see some zombies falling around the place.

maccored

pity theres no ghost tours in kilkenny like there is in Carlow - http://ghostwalkireland.com

catbear

I would class Fianna Fail as the walking dead.

$kilkenny

Theres the stories around castlemorris house out near knocktopher of an old lady with a few sightings along the roads, the old castlemorris manor house window story of an abandoned house and yet everyday 1 extra curtain would be closed each day and the house had 365 windows... Thats some interestin stuff when you talk to the locals.
Or the sighting over in kilfane years ago, plenty around ya just need to go look.

JosephDoyleIre

I thought they used to say that Alice Kytler appeared on the stairs at St Canices Cathedral?

Her maid is supposed to haunt Kytler's Inn though. As far as I can remember, the story goes that they executed Alice Kytler after her fourth/fifth (?) husband died. She fled when the mob came towards her. They took her maid and burned her instead. I don't know if they thought it was Alice Kytler or if they just wanted to execute someone!? Anyway, they say the maid haunts the site.

foxcoverteddy

What about the man in black? Not far from Callan is Foxcover Wood, whilst driving through the area one fine day there was a man dressed in all black standing beside the bushes that line the road, I guess the style of clothes was 1800/early 1900 hundreds, he had a flat type leather cap, one that the old train drivers had.
Knowing some of the people nearby I mentioned the occurrence, oh yes said one lady we were always told beware the black gate, apparently somewhere in the wood there are remains of a cottage which had a black gate.
Talking to someone who lived the other side of Kilmanagh about this and he said, I have seen the chap, he walked past our house, when I rushed out to see what he wanted, he had of course disappeared, does anyone else know of this story?
Is it anything to do with the Cuffes or Desert House?
I presume UFO's come into this, we had one a few years back about 2aqm in the morning we were on the way back from work, stationary in the sky was this bright light showing both red and blue, no engine noise as per the many jets passing over, it then moved a short distance with all lights still showing, it then took off at very high speed and that was that, I phoned the Garda and was advised to phone the air corp, I heard no more