Leap Castle: Inside Ireland’s Most Violent and Haunted Fortress — Ep. 18

Deep in the heart of Ireland stands Leap Castle — a centuries-old fortress known for bloodshed, betrayal, and the restless spirits said to haunt its halls. From secret dungeons and family murders to a malevolent presence known only as the Elemental, its story is one of Ireland’s darkest legends.

In this episode of State of the Unknown: Out of State, Robert Barber explores the haunted history and true paranormal stories of Leap Castle — a place where history and horror intertwine, and where the past refuses to stay buried.

🎧 Ancient walls. Real hauntings. True fear.

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Some stories don’t stay buried.
We go looking anyway.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
This episode of Out of State contains accounts drawn
from folklore, eyewitnessreports and historical sources.
Some details are matters oflegend and cannot be
independently verified.
It is offered here as a story,part history, part haunting, to
be experienced with curiosityand perhaps a little caution.

(00:23):
Stone walls hold memory andsome castles remember too much.
In the mist-covered hills ofIreland's Midlands, a grey
silhouette rises against the sky.
Silhouette rises against thesky.
Its walls are broken, itswindows hollow, yet the weight

(00:52):
of centuries clings to everystone.
This is Lep Castle, a fortresswhispered about for generations.
Its foundation set on ancientground soil where druids once
walked and where blood wasspilled long before the first
stone was laid.
What followed was worse.
Rival clans slaughtered eachother in its halls, a brother

(01:17):
murdered his own kin at thealtar, prisoners were dropped
into a pit lined with spikes.
And something else moves therestill, something beyond human, a
thing they call the elemental.
It reeks of rot and sulfur.

(01:38):
Its face is part human, partbeast, and those who see it
never forget the smell.
This is Lepcastle, ireland'smost haunted stronghold.
I'm Robert Barber, and this isOut of State, a companion series

(02:14):
to State of the Unknown.
Short journeys into legendsbeyond America's borders,
stories of folklore, hauntingsand shadows from the other side
of the map, let's step into thedark.

(02:43):
Lep Castle rises from the greenhills of County Offaly in the
very center of Ireland.
Today it looks almost timelessWeathered stone walls, narrow
windows and a broken crown ofbattlements against the sky.
But long before anyone laid itsfoundation, the land it sits on

(03:05):
was already sacred ground.
Archaeologists in local lorealike suggest the site was once
used by druids, a place ofceremony and perhaps sacrifice.
If that's true, then Lep Castleis built on soil already
steeped in ritual, where humanblood was spilled in the name of

(03:30):
gods older than memory.
It would not be the firstcastle in Ireland raised on such
a site.
Some believe that is why itfeels so heavy, as though the
ground itself remembers.
When the castle finally wasbuilt in the early 1200s, it

(03:52):
became the seat of the O'Bannonclan.
But even their story beginswith death.
The O'Bannons were minornobility vassals under the
powerful O'Carroll clan.
To choose their leader, legendsays two brothers were forced to
leap from a rocky outcrop nearthe site.
Only one would survive theprize, the right to rule and the

(04:16):
chance to build the strongholdthat would become Lep Castle.
It is a story that sets thetone for everything that
followed.
Blood sacrifice, death as proofof loyalty, survival determined
by violence.
Even the name of the place, lep, spelled L-E-A-P, is a reminder

(04:41):
of the brutal contest.
The O'Bannons would not rulelong.
The O'Carroll seized the castleand from then on, lep was no
longer just a family stronghold.
It became a fortress ofambition and betrayal.
Even before the walls drippedwith clan rivalry, lep Castle

(05:04):
was already a place where bloodhad spilled for power, a castle
born from a leap of death,standing on ground where ancient
rites once echoed.
The O'Carrolls were ruthless.
Their clan wars and violentfeuds turned Lep Castle into a

(05:28):
fortress of blood.
One of the most infamous eventstook place in the 1500s.
Two O'Carroll brothers wererivals for leadership.
One was a priest holding massin the chapel at the top of the
tower.
The other burst in sword inhand and cut him down at the
altar.
Blood spilled across the stonesand the chapel has been known

(05:51):
ever since as the Bloody Chapel.
But the bloodshed did not endthere.
Centuries later, in the early1900s, workers renovating the
castle made a grim discovery.
Behind a trap door near thechapel, they found a hidden pit,

(06:12):
an obliquette.
Its floor was lined with woodenspikes.
Its depths were filled withbones.
When the pit was finallycleared, cartloads of skeletons
were removed.
By some counts, the remains ofmore than 150 people Some say it

(06:34):
was hundreds Prisoners had beendropped into the pit, impaled
and left to rot in the darkness.
Lep Castle was not only afortress.
It was an execution ground, aplace where betrayal ended in
blood and where the stonesthemselves became soaked with

(06:56):
death.
Most haunted castles are hometo ghosts, shades of those who
lived and died there.
But Lep has something different, something darker.
It's called an elemental.
In folklore, elementals arespirits of the natural world,

(07:18):
beings tied to earth, air, fireor water.
They're older than human memory.
Forces of nature given form.
Some traditions say they canprotect others that they bring
disaster.
Lep's elemental is unlike anyother.

(07:39):
Witnesses describe it as small,hunched, vaguely human, but
horribly decayed.
Its face is twisted, part humanand part beast.
Its presence is alwaysaccompanied by the stench of
sulfur and rotting flesh.
Those who encounter it areovercome by fear, not ordinary

(08:05):
fear, but a suffocating dreadthat leaves some paralyzed,
others fleeing in panic.
There are stories of peoplecollapsing where they stand,
their minds unable to endure thesight.
Where did it come from?
Some say it was born of theland itself, a dark guardian

(08:30):
awakened by centuries ofbloodshed.
Others believe it was conjuredin occult rituals in the 1800s.
And still others say it was thecastle's curse made flesh, the
embodiment of every act ofbetrayal and murder carried out
within its walls.
The bloody chapel has neverlost its weight.

(08:52):
Visitors climbing the narrowstairs say the air grows colder
with each step, colder with eachstep.
Inside, silence presses downlike a stone.
Some hear footsteps pacingacross the floor, steady and
deliberate.
Others have fled after hearingscreams, sharp, sudden cries

(09:15):
that vanish into the walls.
The Obliette casts its ownshadow.
When it was uncovered, hundredsof skeletons were found impaled
on spikes below.
Even today, people who standnear the pit report dizziness or
the sense of being watched fromthe dark Mediums describe the

(09:38):
energy as thick, almostsuffocating, as though the dead
have never left.
And then there is the elemental.
Witnesses say it appearswithout warning A small, hunched
figure with a decayed face andhollow eyes, always accompanied

(09:58):
by the stench of sulfur and rot.
The sight alone has made peoplefaint.
Others are left trembling,unable to shake the dread.
The elemental doesn't reach out, it doesn't speak, it simply
stands watching and then itvanishes, leaving behind only

(10:20):
the smell and the memory.
In the 1800s Lep Castle passedinto the hands of the Darby
family.
For a time they broughtrefinement, new furnishings,
renovations and polite societygatherings.
But the Darbys also broughtsomething else.

(10:44):
Mildred Darby, the lady of thehouse, was drawn to the occult.
She embraced the wave ofspiritualism sweeping through
Europe at the time when seancesand table-turning were
fashionable among the upperclass.
But at Lep the practice seemedto take on a darker tone.

(11:06):
By candlelight in the bloodychapel, guests would gather in
circles calling on the dead,whispers filled the air, shadows
twisted across the stone wallsand some swore they felt unseen
hands brush their shoulders.
Mildred herself described whatshe encountered.

(11:28):
She wrote of a decaying face,the skin drawn tight over bone,
like parchment, with blackhollows where eyes and nose
should have been.
The stench was overpowering theair, heavy with the smell of
death.
She said the sight was sodreadful it seemed to burn

(11:50):
itself into her memory.
Some believe Mildred's seancesawakened the elemental, pulling
it closer, feeding it attention.
Others think it had always beenthere and she simply gave it
the chance to reveal itself.
Either way, it was Mildred'swords that carried Lepcastle's

(12:11):
reputation beyond Ireland.
Her accounts of the grotesquepresence were published and
circulated, turning theelemental from a whispered local
legend into one of the mostchilling figures in paranormal
lore.
The 20th century brought freshdisturbances.
When renovations began, workerscomplained of strange

(12:35):
happenings, tools vanishedwithout explanation, shadows
flitted along the walls where noone stood and many refused to
remain in the castle after dark.
Visitors described suddennausea, dizziness or an
overwhelming sense of dread.
Some have fainted outright.

(12:57):
Others speak of footstepspacing the bloody chapel or
phantom cries echoing in thenight.
The sulfur smell of theelemental lingers as the most
terrifying sign, appearingwithout warning, sometimes even
outdoors in the castle yard.

(13:17):
Paranormal groups from aroundthe world have tested Lep Castle
.
The Ghost Hunters team filmedhere in 2009, reporting phantom
footsteps, cold spots andshadowy forms moving through the
bloody chapel.
Their equipment registeredsharp spikes in electromagnetic
fields and sudden drops intemperature with no physical

(13:40):
explanation.
The crew of Most Haunted filmedinside LEP as well.
Several members reported wavesof nausea.
While one investigator claimedhe was scratched by unseen hands
, others swore they heardguttural growls echoing through
the obliqued chamber.
Independent investigators havecollected their own evidence

(14:05):
Electronic voice phenomena,faint words whispered in both
English and Gaelic, oftensounding like prayers or cries.
Thermo cameras have capturedhuman-shaped figures that vanish
when approached.
Photographs reveal strange orbsof light drifting in the
corridors, blinking in and outlike fireflies.

(14:28):
Even locals visiting withoutcameras or equipment have
stories Of chanting heard in thechapel Of sulfur, stinking in
an empty corridor, of beingseized by sudden illness so
severe they collapsed where theystood and through it all.

(14:49):
Lep remains a home.
The family who owns it liveswithin its walls, carrying on
their daily lives alongside theshadows.
To them, the castle is not onlyhistory or legend, but a living
place, a place where the pastand present walk side by side.

(15:12):
Lep Castle is open to tours.
By day, it is a ruin of stoneand shadow.
By night it becomes somethingelse.
Locals rarely go near it.
Too many stories, Too muchblood in the walls.
What sets Lep apart is theelemental Not a ghost, not a

(15:37):
memory, but something older, apresence born of violence and
ritual, still walking thecorridors today.
Lep Castle is Ireland's mosthaunted fortress, a place where
the past never rests, wherehistory and horror blur together

(15:59):
and where some doors onceopened can never be shut.
This has been Out of State, acompanion series from State of
the Unknown.
Short journeys into legendsbeyond America's borders.

(16:20):
If you've been enjoying theshow, follow, rate and share it
with someone who can't resist astory that lingers Until next
time.
If you ever find yourself inCounty Offaly, ireland, beware
the smell of sulfur.
It may be the only warningyou'll get.