The Dublin Ghost Bus Tour is a big box of Frankenberry cereal on wheels that shuffles around the city every night. Who wouldn't want to climb aboard?!
Our tour began after dark. We visited some of the spookiest places in Dublin led by a pretty creepy guide who knew way too much about the occult and paranormal in our Fair City. You sit in the top of the bus and he tells you stories as you drive around looking out at haunted buildings.
One of the places we visited were the original gates to the city. Well, the oldest gates still standing. Dublin has been around for 1100 years, if you can believe that. In medieval times lepers used to be relegated to living near these gates on the then-outskirts of town:
We also visited a crumbling church from the 1500's, which is build on the foundations of a church from the 800's. The church was the site of several horrific events, which has resulted in some pretty scary hauntings. Here's the church by day. It looks like an overgrown bush:
At night it's a little more scary:
In this church the guide told Claire and I that a woman last week saw two monk ghosts who told her they burned in a fire. It turns out two medieval monks really did die in a fire in the church, and that the fire was started mysteriously when a woman was being exorcised there in the 1300s. The monks were locked in the church to carry out the exorcism. They burned alive.
The guide said this: A woman walked into the church and immediately froze. She told the tour guide, "I see two monks behind you. They are telling me to ask you not to speak." And she got a little vial of holy water out of her bag and started to sprinkle him with it (lots of Catholic people carry holy water, that's very common, especially over here). The guide started to speak and she said, "Do not say what you're thinking right now. Do not speak." But the guide spoke anyway. He says to her "Ask them what my name is," just out of curiosity to see if this is real. And at first the woman won't say, but finally she goes, "The monks are saying it's Brent." This was true. And at a staff meeting a few days later Brent did a little research and found out "brent" comes from medieval English for "burnt".
Anyway, so if you'd like a second ghosty story, here's the other creepy thing to have happened in the church. During the Reformation, Catholics were banned from practicing their faith. This was punishable by torturous death. There was a bishop who would say secret masses in St Kevin's in the pitch black so as to go undetected. But someone ratted him out, and he was dragged from St Kevin's to Dublin Castle (a 25 min walk at least), and in Dublin Castle he was tortured. They put his legs in iron buckets of oil and put them in the fire to cook and asked him to renounce the Pope, but he would not. So they hung him by thorned vines in the streets to die slowly. The bishop has been frequently sighted inside the church. In fact, over his memorial stone where the altar used to be, he is sighted quite often.
Naturally I took some photos by the memorial stone. :) Hey, I watch TAPS. I know what shows up in pictures in haunted spots! hehe. I took these over the course of 10 minutes or so. And I dunno if it's anything or not, but I always got the same speck (orb?) at the head of the memorial stone. See if you can see it too. These are every single photo I took over there--the spot always shows up in roughly the same place over and over again, always by the headstone (hovering over the brownish grassy patch), even if I move my camera:
The guide said this: A woman walked into the church and immediately froze. She told the tour guide, "I see two monks behind you. They are telling me to ask you not to speak." And she got a little vial of holy water out of her bag and started to sprinkle him with it (lots of Catholic people carry holy water, that's very common, especially over here). The guide started to speak and she said, "Do not say what you're thinking right now. Do not speak." But the guide spoke anyway. He says to her "Ask them what my name is," just out of curiosity to see if this is real. And at first the woman won't say, but finally she goes, "The monks are saying it's Brent." This was true. And at a staff meeting a few days later Brent did a little research and found out "brent" comes from medieval English for "burnt".
Anyway, so if you'd like a second ghosty story, here's the other creepy thing to have happened in the church. During the Reformation, Catholics were banned from practicing their faith. This was punishable by torturous death. There was a bishop who would say secret masses in St Kevin's in the pitch black so as to go undetected. But someone ratted him out, and he was dragged from St Kevin's to Dublin Castle (a 25 min walk at least), and in Dublin Castle he was tortured. They put his legs in iron buckets of oil and put them in the fire to cook and asked him to renounce the Pope, but he would not. So they hung him by thorned vines in the streets to die slowly. The bishop has been frequently sighted inside the church. In fact, over his memorial stone where the altar used to be, he is sighted quite often.
Naturally I took some photos by the memorial stone. :) Hey, I watch TAPS. I know what shows up in pictures in haunted spots! hehe. I took these over the course of 10 minutes or so. And I dunno if it's anything or not, but I always got the same speck (orb?) at the head of the memorial stone. See if you can see it too. These are every single photo I took over there--the spot always shows up in roughly the same place over and over again, always by the headstone (hovering over the brownish grassy patch), even if I move my camera:
Anyway, it was probably just the lens catching some dust in the same spot a few times, but it kinda creeped us out while we were there, standing in the pitch-black crumbling medieval church! :)
The ghost bus was a blast, but I confess I am really going to miss visiting Haunted Houses for Kara's birthday like we used to. Michigan has fantastic haunted houses! And they're always so funny too--or maybe that's just Kara's effect on haunted houses. I seem to recall one with a fat guy in a baby costume....not sure how we were supposed to be scared by that...
Have a happy Halloween week everyone!
The ghost bus was a blast, but I confess I am really going to miss visiting Haunted Houses for Kara's birthday like we used to. Michigan has fantastic haunted houses! And they're always so funny too--or maybe that's just Kara's effect on haunted houses. I seem to recall one with a fat guy in a baby costume....not sure how we were supposed to be scared by that...
Have a happy Halloween week everyone!
There is a ghost tour in Alexandria, VA that I have always wanted to take. An ex-coworker of mine told me he subleted an apartment in Alexandria for a few months. Unbeknownst to him, his "apartment" was on the ghost tour! He was confused when a few times a week a strangely dressed man with a lantern would drag a group of people to his front door and talk for ten minutes and then leave. Finally, he figured it out and started making noises and flickering his lights every now and again to scare the children. Awesome.
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ReplyDeletevery strange. I was talking to maggie about Laurane Watson and that haunted ragady ann doll. That lady has some creepy stories...makes me want to watch some paranormal state!
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