Malahide Castle - Castles on Waymarking.com

Malahide Castle, set on 250 acres of park land in the pretty seaside town of Malahide, was both a fortress and a private home for nearly eight hundred years. The Talbot family lived here from 1185 to 1973, when the last Lord Talbot died. The house is furnished with beautiful period furniture together with an extensive collection of Irish portrait paintings, mainly from the National Gallery. The history of the Talbot family is recorded in the Great Hall, with portraits of generations of the family telling their own story of Ireland's stormy history. One of the more poignant legends concerns the morning of the Battle of the Boyne in 1690, when fourteen members of the family breakfasted together in this room, never to return, as all were dead by nightfall.

As befits the oldest inhabited castle in Ireland, Malahide Castle has many ghostly traditions. Many historic castles and houses have one ghost, some have two or three, but Malahide Castle has five.

First there is the spectre of young Lord Galtrim, Sir Walter Hussey, son of the Baron of Galtrim, who in the 15th Century was killed in battle on his wedding day. This Lord Galtrim wanders through the Castle at night pointing to the spear wound in his side and uttering dreadful groans. He is supposed to haunt the Castle to show his resentment towards his young bride, who married his rival immediately after he had given up his life in defence of her honour and happiness.

The second spectre is that of the Lady Maud Plunkett who does not appear as she did on the day of her marriage to Lord Galtrim, but as she looked when she married her third husband, a Lord Chief Justice. At this time she had become notorious as an un-equalled virago, and in her ghostly appearances chases her husband through the corridors of the Castle. The third ghost is that of the Chief Justice himself, who merely appears to furnish his spectral spouse with an opportunity of taking a little nocturnal exercise.

The fourth ghost is more interesting, historically speaking and is that of Miles Corbett, the Roundhead to whom Cromwell gave the Castle and property during his protectorate. At the Restoration Miles was deprived of his property and made to pay the penalty of the many crimes he had committed during his occupancy, and which included the desecration of the chapel of the old abbey near the Castle. He was hanged, drawn and quartered and when his ghost first appears it seems to be a perfectly whole soldier in armour, but then falls into four pieces before the eyes of anyone who has the unpleasant experience of meeting it. .

The story of the fifth ghost has a certain amount of pathos. In the 16th Century, as befitted a family of importance, the Talbots always had a jester among their retinue of attendants. One of these jesters, “Puck” by name, fell in love with a kinswoman of Lady Elenora Fitzgerald, who was detained at the Castle by Henry VIII because of her rebel tendencies. On a snowy December night the jester was found close to the walls of the Castle stabbed through the heart, a tragic figure in his gay jester suit and cap and bells. Before he died he swore an oath that he would haunt the Castle until a master reigned who choose a bride from the people, but would harm no one if a male Talbot slept under the roof. .

Poor little Puck and his last appearance were reported during the sale of the contents of the Castle in May 1976. His little dwarf figure makes its appearance in many photographs of the Castle and one outstanding photograph shows his old bewitching and wrinkled face peering out of the ivy on the wall. The Castle with its 800 year old family history is haunted with many unseen and unknown spirits and their presence is felt in every room.

Park Opening Times

How to Get There:

By bus: Bus 42 from city centre.

By train: Suburban rail and DART from Connolly Station to Malahide.

Car-parking (3 car-parks) The main car park is 140 metres from Main Entrance, No 2 car park is just inside the main entrance gates and No. 3 car park is on the north side of the estate close to the Railway station

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