A
Druids Ghost.
There is a passage tomb
somewhere in the west of Ireland where druids buried their dead in stone
containers, is it possible that one of their number protects their sleep?
There is a story told
of a figure that looks human that has been seen at night. It has been described by those who have seen
it as “having a face that no human ever had”. It has terrified locals for
generations; those who have attempted to speak to it only see it
disappear. Records tell us that it was
first seen around the 15th century when a hunting party came upon a
strange creature outside the entrance to the passage tomb, as they fired at it
with their bows it just vanished into thin air.
Within one month of seeing the creature each member of the hunting party
met with a fatal accident.
The first records of
people actually being attacked by the spirit concern the occupants of a cottage
that had been built a short walk from the tomb.
It was around the beginning of the 19th century. The cottage was rented by Padraic
MacLoughlainn and his family that worked for a local landlord. They were an ordinary hard working family and
well liked by their neighbours. It was shortly after they had moved in that
they heard scratching and chewing noises from outside their cottage door, it
sounded like some large animal trying to get in. Padraic picked up his slash hook, opened the
door slowly and looked outside; there was nothing there and not a mark on the
door. This happened each night and yet
nothing was ever seen, after two weeks the noises ended without warning.
It remained quiet for a
while and the MacLoughlainn’s thought that it may have been some of the young
men of the area just trying to scare them a little, maybe playing a silly prank
on the ‘blow ins’, the newcomers and having tired of their nightly game had now
decided to go back to their normal business.
It wasn’t going to be that easy.
One night when the children were all fast asleep and Padraic and his
wife were sat by the fire they heard whispering, checking to see if it was one
of the children they found them fast sleep. Over the next couple of nights the
whispering became more intense and was followed by groans. One night the
blankets were pulled from the children’s bed and one of them screamed in
terror, she had been slapped by an invisible hand and this was followed by
strange laughing noises. Padraic went to the local priest and even though he
feared retribution from the landlord he told the priest about the nightly
visits and how one of the children had been attacked. The priest agreed to go to the cottage and
say a mass. It was to go quiet once
more.
However, as before it
was not to last. Padraic became ill, he had
difficulty swallowing, he couldn’t talk or eat and he became very pale. The local fairy doctor (herbalist) gave him a
few herbs and he slowly recovered. A week later he was to develop other
symptoms, this time he had severe stomach pains, he couldn’t sleep and he had
difficulty working, this was a great worry for without work they would be
evicted from their home. It seemed as if
the family was under some kind of curse. Padraic called for the priest once
again but it seemed to make matters worse.
The attacks increased and even the priest began to avoid the family.
In desperation Padraic
went to the landlord and begged him for help.
Surprisingly the landlord agreed to send his agent to the cottage with
instructions to spend the night there. Padraic did not know that the landlord
was fully aware of what had been happening and unlike Padraic who was unaware
of the druids spirit the landlord knew the history only too well. The agent arrived that evening and was given
the use of the MacLoughlainn’s bed and whatever they could provide in
hospitality. He sat in the best seat by
the fire and began to make light of the MacLoughlainn’s nightly visitor. This
made things worse, for the first time the druid was heard to speak; it mimicked
the voice of the agent and threw him from his seat. The agent screamed out and fled from the
cottage as if the devil himself was chasing him.
The whole parish began
to talk about the druid’s spirit and the terrified family; people began to
point at the MacLoughlainn’s and whisper.
No one wanted to visit the cottage anymore and if anyone had to pass by
they were seen to make the sign of the cross and the sign of the evil eye. The MacLoughlainn’s felt all alone, even the
children were shunned. It wasn’t to end
there, the MacLoughlainn’s were accused of committing minor crimes in the area
and although they were found to be innocent of all charges they felt more and
more isolated and alone.
The parish had
abandoned their neighbours hoping that by distancing themselves from the MacLoughlainn’s
they would be protected from what had now become known as the druids
curse. It was not to be. The whispering of the druid began in the
streets of the parish, in the blacksmiths forge, in the local shop, even in the
church. What made it worse for the
people of the parish was that their private thoughts concerning their
neighbours were somehow revealed to each other even the landlord became aware
of what people truly thought of him and his agent.
The curse was to
eventually take a life, that of Padraic MacLoughlainn. The sickness that he suffered from kept
returning. The priest and the local
fairy doctor could do nothing and he began to sink lower and lower. The priest was kneeling by his bedside one
night when he heard a whisper, it was the voice he had heard before and he
recognised it as belonging to the spirit.
It was to tell him that all the prayers to his new god would do him no
good that MacLoughlainn would die as he had committed crimes against the sacred
site of the druids. It transpired that Padraic had visited the passage tomb and
found items that the druids had upon their person when they were interred
within, thinking them to be of value he had removed them and sold them for a
few penny’s to help with the rent. One
week later Padraic MacLoughlainn sat up in his bed and with a look of terror he
was said to have pointed his finger at some invisible presence, fell back onto
his pillow and died. A look of absolute despair upon his face. The people present heard a strange sound like
a low wind followed by whispering.
The family held a wake
but very few people would spend the night with the corpse, they simply offered
their sympathies and excused themselves.
He was buried within two days which was unusual at the time as a body would
be waked for a week. As the body was lowered into the ground there was heard a
sound of laughter but no one knew from where.
The family were unable to pay the rent as the head of the house was gone
so as was the practice of the day the remaining family, mother and children
were evicted. The landlord could find no
one willing to live in the cottage and so he ordered it to be razed to the
ground and all sign that it had ever been there to be removed.
That should have been
an end to it; the druid had been avenged so all should have returned to normal.
However, the spirit was seen many times down through the years by people who
ventured too near to the passage tomb.
It was said that a group of English soldiers that had camped nearby and
had entered the tomb in order to spend the night out of the rain suffered
injuries by an unseen assailant, one of their number was to die of his injuries
and those that survived were never the same again refusing to talk of what they
had seen that night.
Some say that the ghost
of Padraic MacLoughlainn is seen searching the area as if he is looking for
something. He has a look of sadness upon
his face. Some have even reported seeing
various men dressed in the clothes of soldiers, some in chain mail, some in
early twentieth century uniform, they all look lost as if they are searching
for something also.
The location of the
passage tomb has remained a secret now for close on two hundred years. It is by having a family connection that you
hear some of the tales but if you are an outsider then you will never be
included in the telling of those tales.
You can try to find the passage tomb on old maps but you won’t be
successful and maybe that’s a good thing because those who have found it before
have lived to regret it. Or maybe not?
The passage tomb was
closed by the present landlords ancestors in the 1920s, the entrance concealed
under tons of earth. The druids of old
have returned to their sleep and as for their protector, well if at night you
pass by a certain place in the west of Ireland and hear a whisper keep walking,
if you hear the wind and the sound of low laughter walk a little faster
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