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The
Gillhall Ghost. |
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As a c In October of 1683, Sir Tristram and Lady Beresford paid an autumnal visit to her sister who lived at Gillhall Co Down. One night, she awoke to see her cousin John, Lord Tyrone, standing by her bed. He told of his death, and that his visit confirmed an afterlife. Lady Beresford, who thought she was dreaming, asked for a token, when he caught her by her wrist, and his ice cold fingers burnt her skin with a preternatural fire, marking her from beyond the grave, he also placed his hands upon a cabinet and left his ghostly prints which would be visible in the morning. He also foretold of her death on her 47th birthday. The next morning when Lady Beresford awoke and remembered the dream that featured her cousin John she was horrified to see upon her wrist, a blemish as if it had been burned, although she felt no pain, the skin all the way round had a puckered withered appearance. When dressing she was appalled to find ghostly prints scorched in the wood of the chest. Much distraught she hid the blemished wrist under a length of black ribbon and hurried down to breakfast. Sir Tristram could see the agitation of Lady Nicola, and asked what had so disturbed her state of mind, whereupon she told him of the nocturnal visit of Lord Tyrone. Much to the distress of Lady Beresford, the next day a letter was delivered that told of the death of Lord Tyrone on the !4 October. As the years passed, it must have been with great trepidation that Lady Beresford greeted her 47th year in 1712 and when it passed with out hazard, with great relief she threw a birthday party for all her family and friends at her Dublin house in 1713 to celebrate her escape from Lord Tyrone’s deathly prophesy. At the height of the festivities she was warmly greeted by a clergy man who congratulated her on her 47th birthday. When she protested that it was her 48th birthday that she celebrated, he excitedly told her he recently had reason to examine the parish registers and had found that she had been born in 1666 and not 1667 as they had all supposed. He had had noted it because of his invitation to her party, he was greatly surprised to see the lady lose all of her colour, saying’ You have signed my death warrant’ she called for her children and left the room. Then she told her children of Lord Tyrone apparition and his prophesy of her death, foretold all those years before, she revealed her withered wrist. Shortly after relating her strange tale, she said her goodbye children and desired to be alone, when not long after her maid on heard her cry rushed into the room to find her dead. There is a portrait in Howth Castle,
Co. Dublin, of Lady Beresford, it which she is said to have had a black
ribbon on her wrist, which at a later period was painted over. Although
Gillhall was last occupied during WWII by the R.A.F,and stood gaunt and
empty, until it was destroyed by fire in June 1969, its ghostly reputation
lives on in the rural countryside that surrounds it in soft rolling hills
of Co Down, as this local newspaper report of the fire affirms. GILLHALL DESTROYED BY FIRE HAS THE GHOST BEEN LAID? Since the early hours of last Sunday morning only the shell remains of the centuries old Gillhall mansion on the outskirts of Dromore, which owes its chief claim to fame to the fact that it is alleged to have been inhabited by a ghost. During the night it was gutted by a fire which was still smouldering many hours later.On Monday the wreckage was searched by forensic science experts. Read about The Gillhall Estate. |
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