Located in County Offaly, in the Midlands of Ireland, and bordering the town of Tullamore near the Shannon River, Charleville Castle is situated in Ireland's most ancient primordial oak woods, once the haunting grounds of Ireland's druids.

The castle was built by Charles William Bury in the 1700s over the top of an ancient druid burial ground. There is a labyrinth of dungeons beneath the castle, but what they were used for is not clear. Screams and cries have been heard coming from the empty dungeons at night beneath Charleville Castle. One visitor even reported seeing a group of druids surrounding her bed on the night of the winter solstice.

One of the legends of Charleville Castle is that of the “King Oak”, a huge, ancient tree that had a special relationship to the Bury family.  It was said that if one of the branches fell from the tree, a member of the family would pass away shortly. In 1963 the oak was hit by a devastating lightning strike.  The tree managed to survive, but within a matter of days Colonel Charles Howard-Bury, the head of the Bury family and last of the family to own the castle, died unexpectedly.

Reported Paranormal Activity

Many people over the years have encountered ghostly apparitions, disembodied voices, footsteps, a child’s cry, a white mist and an spooky male figure who roams the walkways of the castle.  There is a balcony that is kept locked due to it being the territory of a powerful spirit elemental. The castle owner was reportedly warned by a sensitive that the elemental was not a good spirit and would not hesitate to do harm to intruders walking the balcony. Taking caution to heart, the current owners have kept the balcony locked ever since.

They themselves have experienced disembodied voices echoing from empty rooms and the ghostly apparitions of children have been seen playing on the stairs.

The most famous ghost of Charleville Castle is perhaps its most tragic, due to the tender age of the child Harriet, the golden haired daughter of one of the Earls of Charleville, was sliding playfully down the banister of the grand staircase when she lost her balance and fell to her death on the cold stone floor below.