On the Hook Peninsula in County Wexford, a short drive from the world’s oldest operational lighthouse, stands a large, old mansion with 97 windows. Loftus Hall rose on a site where the Redmond family built a castle around 1350, and the Loftus family made it their seat in 1666. For years it was called Ireland’s most haunted house.
The legend begins with a storm. A ship sheltered at nearby Slade Harbour, and a stranger was welcomed into the hall. Young Anne Tottenham grew close to him. One evening at cards she dropped a card, bent to retrieve it, and saw a cloven hoof beneath the table. She screamed, and the stranger vanished through the roof in a ball of fire. Anne, the story goes, never recovered. Her family locked her in the Tapestry Room until her death in 1775. Some say a priest named Thomas Broaders was called to exorcise the house. Yet the record does not cooperate: Broaders died in 1773, the Tottenhams did not inherit until 1785, and the tale was first published in 1882. A visitor’s photograph later appeared to show a woman standing in a doorway.
Loftus Hall cannot be visited. Tours ended in 2020, and the hall was sold in late 2025 to a private owner planning a hotel. It is closed with no reopening date. Stay on the public roads, visit the lighthouse, and leave Anne to her legend.
Story Source: www.theirishroadtrip.com
Address: Loftus Hall, Hook Peninsula, Fethard-on-Sea, County Wexford, Ireland
Accessibility Rating: No Public Access — Private property, active restricted site, or location no longer physically accessible to visitors.
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What Others Have Experienced
Standing by a marble fireplace lined with candles during a tour, a visitor felt sudden taps on their shoulder, though their companion denied touching them and no one else was close enough. Moments later the companion felt something playing with their hair, and both left with a memory they could not explain.
— from TripAdvisor
On a tour of the house, a guest found the bitter cold inside made the whole place feel spooky from the start. The crumbling, half-abandoned rooms and the guide’s account of the house’s dark past turned the visit into something that felt genuinely haunting rather than staged.
— from TripAdvisor
