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Renvyle House Hotel

Renvyle House can be found in the wild splendour of Connemara, amid the magical beauty of sea, lake and mountains. Over several centuries, Renvyle House has been built, pulled down, rebuilt, burned to ashes and rebuilt once again. It was also the home of Oliver St John Gogarty (Buck Mulligan ofiamesioyce’s Ulysses) and,since becoming a country house hotel in 1883, has played host to many famous people such as Augustus John,W. B.Yeats and Winston Churchill,

Several ghosts are thought to roam the sea-sprayed house. When Dublin surgeon, poet and wit Oliver St John Gogarty purchased the property in 1917 he got more than he bargained for! No servant dared sleep in a north-facing upstairs room, with heavy bars across its windows for fear of the ‘presence’ that could be felt there. One particular night an evil force moved a heavy linen chest across the door, barring outside access.

Gogarty himself was woken another night by slow plodding footsteps. Lighting a candle to investigate the corridor they seemed to be com ing from, he was plunged into darkness as the candle suddenly went out. Alone in the dark he felt heavy and tired ‘as if I were exercising with rubber ropes’, as he later described it. The poet W B. Yeats was a close friend of Gogarty and when he came to stay with his wife, Georgia, the paranor mal activity increased significantly.

Yeats held a séance and, using automatic writing, the spirit indicated that it objected to the presence of strangers in the house but would reveal its identity to his wife. Georgia Yeats was a celebrated medium of her day and she later alleged she saw a vapoury mist appear by the fireside, which took the shape of a red-haired, tragic-looking, pale-faced boy

Today guests continue to complain of invisible pres ences in their room. Several women have seen the reflec tion of a man in their mirror as they apply their make-up but when they turn around the room is cold and empty 361 Fife | Aberdeen | Aberdeen | Boxley | Chesterfield | Cornwall | Hampshire | Kiveton | Lanark | Lancashire | Lincoln | Lowestoft | lreland | Room 3 | Royal Hotel | Scotland | Scotland |