Tyrone

Lissan House, near Cookstown in County Tyrone, shot to prominence when it became runner-up in the 2003 BBC1 Restoration contest.The house had been the Staples’ fam ily home for400 years — the longest occupation byany sin gle family of a country house in Ireland. The Staples established the site in 1620 when they set up an iron works and built houses for their workers. Despite hard times and financial difficulties the Staples never sold the house, which today stands proudly encircled by tall trees on the banks of a babbling river.

There are many spooky stories associated with this much loved and admired house, which is urgently in need of repair. Hazel Radclyffe Dolling — the hail’s last owner and last surviving member of the Staples family — believed that this could only be expected in a house of such anti quity. She had many a tale to tell of strange and unusual happenings, from cold spots to the heavy footsteps of an invisible man plodding around the house at night.

Some people visiting the house have smelt the musty aroma of rose petals and lavender and others have heard the gut sobs of a Young child. One guest at the house claimed to have walked up to the firs t-floor land ing and found a group of children Playing a game She asked them who they were and what they Were doing but they ignored her. They then skipped away laughing do the hail and, to her astonishment vanished There Were no children present an in the house at that time Since the death of Lady Hazel Radclyffe Dolling in April2006 the land and buildings have been ent the Friends of Lissan Trust.

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