Scare Week - Huntington Castle

Huntington Castle is located in Clonegall, Carlow and was built in the early 17th century as a plantation castle. It was eventually captured by Cromwell as he marched on Kilkenny.

We visited the castle as part of Scare Week which we worked on with radio station Beat 102 103. We had heard many wonderful stories of the ghost tours which take place around Halloween and were told it would be well worth a visit. We were especially intrigued about the stories of Olivia Robertson who was the famed high-priestess of the Fellowship Of Isis, a religion based on the divine female and started in the basement of Huntington Castle. Indeed the Temple to the goddess Isis remains and is fascinating to see. Have a look at the video and you’ll get some sense of how amazing it is. A visit reveals its full glory.

Again, just to point out that Scare Week was primarily an entertainment feature and not intended as an accurate portrayal of paranormal investigations etc. We wanted to hear the stories from the people involved, and like in Huntington Castle, the people were the family who owned the house. The Durdin-Roberstons conduct the Halloween tours and are fantastic guides as you can see in the video.

One of the problems we encountered was that we were creating a video meant to be eerie and unnerving but the day was sunny and bright so was hard to give a sense of “Halloween”. The house itself is old at nearly 400 years old and a lot of the original features exist. There’s a sense of history about the place although being there with the family meant we didn’t feel uneasy. The stories they told were fascinating and we’re planning to go back this year to do the ghost tour. We highly recommend you join us!

When we shot this video, Olivia Robertson was sick in hospital and sadly died in November 2013. She’s left a very lasting legacy and the Fellowship Of Isis lives on.

www.huntingtoncastle.com