Charleville Castle

Charleville Castle is also at the top of the list of Most Haunted Castle of Ireland right along with Leap Castle. I am hoping to work it into our list of places to see while we are in Ireland. I mean coming from a paranormal investigator stand point it would be an really great to get a chance to check it out! So let me get on to giving you some of the history of Charleville Castle as well as some of the reported paranormal activity.

History of Charleville Castle, Tullamore, Ireland

The Castle is situated in Ireland's most ancient primordial oak woodlands, once the haunting grounds of Ireland's druids thousands of years ago. The Castle grounds were once the site of an ancient burial ground inhabited by Druid Celtic priests in the 6th century.  The Oak was the Sacred tree of the Druids and in the grounds of the Castle is a Druids initiation Circle a constant reminder that this was a Sacred Ritual site. When the plague hit Ireland it was widespread during the middle ages, many of the local sick people were buried alive to prevent the sickness from spreading. Many believe that their spirits continue to haunt the Castle grounds.

 in 1577 1,700 acres of this land became a gift to the Moore family from Queen Elizabeth I. A member of the Moore family was raised to the Earldom of Charleville, but the title lapsed in 1764 due to the lack of heirs in the direct male line. The land, however was eventually inherited back by 6 month old infant Charles William Bury, born into the  Co. Limerick land-owning family, who was importantly, also a grand-nephew of the last Earl.

Charles William Bury was created Baron Tullamoore in 1797, and as a man of considerable wealth joined into building a Castle  by engaging the services of the renowned architect Francis Johnston in the planning of the Castle to be built near Tullamoore. The construction of Charleville Castle commenced in 1798 and it took the next 14 years to complete what many considered the finest Neo-Gothic Castle in all of Ireland. The wonderful craftsmanship involved being mainly due to the skill  the Irish people. Charles William Bury was raised to the restored Earldom of Charleville in 1806.

There are many rumors that Charles William Bury practiced devil worship and chose the site for the Castle because it reportedly lies on ancient electro magnetic ley lines, which would allow him to take advantage of the natural magnetic energies that are prevelant there. Two of the Earls of Charleville were Grandmasters in the Freemasons of Ireland. This is why the towers were designed with the 8 point star construction. Free masonry was a family tradition with the Burys. Could this have anything to do with the plethora of ghostly phenomenon reported at their family home? Who can say?

Ghosts of Charleville Castle

The most famous ghost of Charleville Castle is perhaps the most tragic, due to her tender age. In April of 1961, Harriet the youngest daughter of the 3rd Earl of Charleville, tragically died while playfully sliding down the banister of the grand staircase when she lost her balance and fell to her death on the cold stone floor below, She was just 8 years old. Her presence in the Castle has been reported many times by many different people. Many people have sensed movement of cold air when traversing the stairway. Others have seen a girl in a blue and white dress with golden curls and blue ribbons in her hair standing on the staircase.

There are two main areas in the Castle where the paranormal activity seems to be focused, the old dungeon and the library. The dungeon, a dark damp place, is said to be the haunting grounds of the entity of a sadist. over the centuries many prisoners are said to have died down there through torture, some of these torture devices are still present. Paranormal investigations that have taken place down there have often had to be cut short due t members having their faces scratched and in one case a cameraman was dragged halfway down a corridor.

Anyone that enters the Castle is asked by the owner not to go near the balcony that over looks the Library. As he has been told by a medium that there is an powerful "Elemental" (Elemental = is a spirit that by nature is chaotic and destructive, but is also clever and capable of reasoning. Not totally evil, but certainly not good). He advised the owner to never let anyone up there as this Element would not hesitate to do harm to someone. And that he should never to try and banish it, just to leave it be. Taking caution to heart, the owner has kept the balcony locked ever since.

Finally, the legend of Charleville Castle "King Oak". The "King Oak" is a huge ancient tree that had a special relationship to the Bury family. It was said that if one of the branches fell from the tree, a member of the family would pass away shortly. In 1963 the oak was hit by a devastating lightning strike. The tree managed to survive, but within a matter of days Colonel Charles Howard-Bury, the head of the Bury family and last of the family to own the castle, died unexpectedly.


Well there ya go my friends, that is the history of Charleville Castle. Sounds interesting doesn't it???  Again I tell ya I wish I could pack Dom, Carrie and Julie in my suitcases as I know how much they would love to go and investigate these places with me!! What fun we would have!

As of today we are down to 100 days!!!! almost double digits! So excited. Just cant get her fast enough I tell ya. Well until the next time my friends.

Blessed Be

Thetford Priory

Thetford Priory is a beautiful old ruin in Norfolk, I am not sure if it is on Dawn's list of places to see or not but I found it to be very interesting. There are so many beautiful places in Norwich I don't know how we are going to have time to see them all!!!! I am so excited about our adventures tho. But most importantly I am looking forward to seeing my soul sister and getting to spend time with her :-) I don't know how much blogging I will get done while I am with her but I will try and keep you all up on our wild and crazy adventures! Hope you enjoy reading about Thetford Priory!

Thetford is traditionally thought of as the royal residence of Boudica Queen of the Iceni. The Iceni were a Celtic tribe living in Norfolk and parts of Cambridgeshire. Archaeological evidence suggests that Thetford was an important tribal center during the late Iron Age and early Roman period. A ceremonial "grove" was uncovered there during excavation. In 1979 a hoard of Roman-British metalwork known as the "Thetford Treasure" was located just outside of Thetford. Dating from the Mid 4th century AD, this hoard is a collection of 33 inscribed spoons, 20 gold finger rings, 4 pendants, several necklaces and a 2" gold buckle depicting a dancing satyr.

The town of Thetfords importance as a religious center started when the East Anglian bishopric moved there in 1071. 22 medieval churches were located in Thetford during its heyday. It resulted in the building of 12 other religious houses. The Priory of Our Lady of Thetford was established by Roger Bigod. Roger Bigod was a friend of William the Conqueror and had accompanied him throughout the Norman invasion of 1066, but his community of Cluniac monks in a remote Norfolk village were a more peaceful affair altogether. It was Bigod, who by now was an old man who founded Thetford Priory and who laid the foundation stone of the new church in September 1107 before he died the following week.

12 Cluniac monks, who came from Lewes priory in Sussex staffed it. Originally it was located south of the River Thet and took in the church of St. Mary (once the diocese cathedral). In 1107 a site North of the river was chosen by Prior Stephen due to overcrowding. By this time 20 monks lived at the priory. In 1114 the new church was completed while construction of the other buildings and cloister continued throughout the 12 century.

A Lady Chapel was built in the early 13th century on the North side of the church. The legend surrounding the building of the chapel states that the Virgin Mary appeared to a local craftsman to say he would be cured of illness if he told the monks to build this chapel. Pilgrims wanting to be rid of their illnesses put the priory on their visitation list after the building of the chapel. The money they brought paid for a rebuilding of the priory church in the late 13th century.

The priory was dissolved in 1540 when the King Henry VIII's Commissioners took it from the prior and 16 monks. The site was robbed of much of its carved stone and flint. Today the priory site is in ruins. On the grounds can be seen the remains of the early 12th century church and its Nave, side aisles, the quire, the transepts, and the Lady Chapel. Parts of the cloister, domestic buildings, and chapter house are visible. To the Southeast are the ruins of the infirmary and two story priors lodgings. The gatehouse is Northwest on the grounds of Abbey House. It is faced with knapped flint. Also surviving as ruins is the priory of the Holy Sepulchre and the remains of a Dominican Friary on the grounds of Thetford school, and the Benedictine church of St. George's Nunnery south of Nunn's Bridges.


Well I hope you enjoyed today's history lesson. Until next time kiddies!!!

Planes, Trains, Buses, or taxi's??

Hello Friends!

Ok, so here we sit with 115 days to go and I am sure that to some of you that may sound like a long time and well yes it is relatively still a good amount of time. But for me, being the person who wants to have her travel plans run as smoothly as possible there are still alot of things that I still have yet to do. One of the things that I have been dealing with is how Dan and I are going to get from London to Norwich. You see when we booked our flight we wanted to take a flight that would be as direct a flight as possible. Alot of the flights that we looked at had long layovers and multiple stops. It would have taken us almost 2 days to reach Norwich. Sounds insane doesn't it? That is what we thought. I couldn't believe that we couldn't find a direct flight. So after searching the best we could find was a non-stop flight from Los Angeles to London. its a 9 hour flight and I am sure most of you think "oh that isn't that bad. Well lets see......first of all, I hate to fly and second I am claustrophobic. yeah so I am not exactly looking forward to spending 9 hours on a plane! However, the upside to all of this is that we leave at 6pm and don't arrive in London until 12:30 the next day (due to the time difference) so I am hoping that I can get my Doctor to give me something to make the trip bearable and maybe make me sleep. 

 Anyway, back to the story Dawn and her husband Daz live in Norwich (Duh you should have got that by now) which is about 4 hours from London. So Dan and I have been trying to figure out the fastest and cheapest way to get from London to Norwich. Holy Cow! who knew that would turn out to be such a mess. Trying to figure it out was complicated to say the least. Not only because of the currency difference but we have NO idea what train to take to get from the airport to get to Norwich  or what Bus to take. And let me tell you, its not like you can just jump on 1 train that takes you to your destination. Oh no that would be too easy!  Lets see the train,  you would have to take from the airport ( oh and that is depending on what terminal you arrive in since apparently Heathrow is a HUGE airport I am guessing it makes LAX look like some airport in some little hicktown!) then it goes into London, then you change trains once or twice, then it finally takes you to Norwich but its a 3 hour trip. Oh and by bus, well at least by bus you can catch it directly from the airport but its a 4-5 hour bus ride. And the cost...yikes yeah it was pretty steep. However, Dawn and Daz came to our rescue!!!  They will be picking us up from the airport in London and then the 4 of us will be driving back to Norwich.

This makes me so happy. As I was a bit sad at the thought of not seeing her face when we walked off the plane. Since that was one of the things that I had pictured in my mind when I had thought about my seeing her for the first time. So now I am happy at knowing that she will be there when I walk off that plane. She will be a sight for sore eyes!! I am sure there will lots of tears,laughter and hugs! And I have already told Dan that he will need to video the entire thing! And I am sure that Daz will be recording it from their end too!  I am so excited about all the things that we will be doing and seeing while we are with them, but most of all I am just excited about having the chance to sit and talk with her look in her eyes, hold her hand and just be able to talk to her face to face. She is my soul sister we have been on this earth many times before she and I, in many different places in many different bodies. But I think we have always managed to find our way back to each other one way or another. there is something that we still have yet to learn from each other and until that has been accomplished our lives on this earth will not be complete.

Ok well enough for today my friends...until the next time. Be well and Blessed Be.