OUT OF STATE | Out of State — Leap Castle: The True Paranormal Stories Behind Ireland’s Most Haunted Fortress

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.

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome to Ireland's Most Haunted Castle
• 2:43 Ancient Ground and Deadly Foundations
• 5:19 The O'Carroll Reign of Blood
• 7:04 The Elemental: Something Beyond Human
• 10:25 Mildred Darby and Occult Awakenings
• 13:17 Modern Hauntings and Investigations
• 15:30 Closing Thoughts: Where Past Never Rests

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:02

This episode of Out of State contains accounts drawn from folklore, eyewitness reports and historical sources. Some details are matters of legend and cannot be independently verified. It is offered here as a story, part history, part haunting, to be experienced with curiosity and perhaps a little caution. Stone walls hold memory and some castles remember too much. In the mist-covered hills of Ireland's Midlands, a grey silhouette rises against the sky. Silhouette rises against the sky. Its walls are broken, its windows hollow, yet the weight of centuries clings to every stone. This is Lep Castle, a fortress whispered about for generations. Its foundation set on ancient ground soil where druids once walked and where blood was spilled long before the first stone was laid. What followed was worse. Rival clans slaughtered each other in its halls, a brother murdered his own kin at the altar, prisoners were dropped into a pit lined with spikes. And something else moves there still, something beyond human, a thing they call the elemental. It reeks of rot and sulfur. Its face is part human, part beast, and those who see it never forget the smell. This is Lepcastle, ireland's most haunted stronghold. I'm Robert Barber, and this is Out of State, a companion series to State of the Unknown. Short journeys into legends beyond America's borders, stories of folklore, hauntings and shadows from the other side of the map, let's step into the dark.

Speaker 1: 2:43

Lep Castle rises from the green hills of County Offaly in the very center of Ireland. Today it looks almost timeless Weathered stone walls, narrow windows and a broken crown of battlements against the sky. But long before anyone laid its foundation, the land it sits on was already sacred ground. Archaeologists in local lore alike suggest the site was once used by druids, a place of ceremony and perhaps sacrifice. If that's true, then Lep Castle is built on soil already steeped in ritual, where human blood was spilled in the name of gods older than memory. It would not be the first castle in Ireland raised on such a site. Some believe that is why it feels so heavy, as though the ground itself remembers.

Speaker 1: 3:50

When the castle finally was built in the early 1200s, it became the seat of the O'Bannon clan. But even their story begins with death. The O'Bannons were minor nobility vassals under the powerful O'Carroll clan. To choose their leader, legend says two brothers were forced to leap from a rocky outcrop near the site. Only one would survive the prize, the right to rule and the chance to build the stronghold that would become Lep Castle. It is a story that sets the tone for everything that followed. Blood sacrifice, death as proof of loyalty, survival determined by violence. Even the name of the place, lep, spelled L-E-A-P, is a reminder of the brutal contest. The O'Bannons would not rule long. The O'Carroll seized the castle and from then on, lep was no longer just a family stronghold. It became a fortress of ambition and betrayal. Even before the walls dripped with clan rivalry, lep Castle was already a place where blood had 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 violent feuds turned Lep Castle into a fortress of blood.

Speaker 1: 5:28

One of the most infamous events took place in the 1500s. Two O'Carroll brothers were rivals for leadership. One was a priest holding mass in the chapel at the top of the tower. The other burst in sword in hand and cut him down at the altar. Blood spilled across the stones and the chapel has been known ever since as the Bloody Chapel. But the bloodshed did not end there.

Speaker 1: 6:00

Centuries later, in the early 1900s, workers renovating the castle made a grim discovery. Behind a trap door near the chapel, they found a hidden pit, an obliquette. Its floor was lined with wooden spikes. Its depths were filled with bones. When the pit was finally cleared, cartloads of skeletons were removed. By some counts, the remains of more than 150 people Some say it was hundreds Prisoners had been dropped into the pit, impaled and left to rot in the darkness.

Speaker 1: 6:42

Lep Castle was not only a fortress. It was an execution ground, a place where betrayal ended in blood and where the stones themselves became soaked with death. Most haunted castles are home to ghosts, shades of those who lived and died there. But Lep has something different, something darker. It's called an elemental. In folklore, elementals are spirits of the natural world, beings tied to earth, air, fire or water. They're older than human memory. Forces of nature given form. Some traditions say they can protect others that they bring disaster.

Speaker 1: 7:37

Lep's elemental is unlike any other. Witnesses describe it as small, hunched, vaguely human, but horribly decayed. Its face is twisted, part human and part beast. Its presence is always accompanied by the stench of sulfur and rotting flesh. Those who encounter it are overcome by fear, not ordinary fear, but a suffocating dread that leaves some paralyzed, others fleeing in panic. There are stories of people collapsing where they stand, their minds unable to endure the sight.

Speaker 1: 8:20

Where did it come from? Some say it was born of the land itself, a dark guardian awakened by centuries of bloodshed. Others believe it was conjured in occult rituals in the 1800s. And still others say it was the castle's curse made flesh, the embodiment of every act of betrayal and murder carried out within its walls. The bloody chapel has never lost its weight. Visitors climbing the narrow stairs say the air grows colder with each step, colder with each step. Inside, silence presses down like a stone. Some hear footsteps pacing across the floor, steady and deliberate. Others have fled after hearing screams, sharp, sudden cries that vanish into the walls.

Speaker 1: 9:18

The Obliette casts its own shadow. When it was uncovered, hundreds of skeletons were found impaled on spikes below. Even today, people who stand near the pit report dizziness or the sense of being watched from the dark Mediums describe the energy as thick, almost suffocating, as though the dead have never left. And then there is the elemental. Witnesses say it appears without warning A small, hunched figure with a decayed face and hollow eyes, always accompanied by the stench of sulfur and rot. The sight alone has made people faint. 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 it vanishes, leaving behind only the smell and the memory.

Speaker 1: 10:24

In the 1800s Lep Castle passed into the hands of the Darby family. For a time they brought refinement, new furnishings, renovations and polite society gatherings. But the Darbys also brought something else. Mildred Darby, the lady of the house, was drawn to the occult. She embraced the wave of spiritualism sweeping through Europe at the time when seances and table-turning were fashionable among the upper class. But at Lep the practice seemed to take on a darker tone. By candlelight in the bloody chapel, guests would gather in circles calling on the dead, whispers filled the air, shadows twisted across the stone walls and some swore they felt unseen hands brush their shoulders.

Speaker 1: 11:25

Mildred herself described what she encountered. She wrote of a decaying face, the skin drawn tight over bone, like parchment, with black hollows where eyes and nose should have been. The stench was overpowering the air, heavy with the smell of death. She said the sight was so dreadful it seemed to burn itself into her memory. Some believe Mildred's seances awakened the elemental, pulling it closer, feeding it attention. Others think it had always been there and she simply gave it the chance to reveal itself. Either way, it was Mildred's words that carried Lepcastle's reputation beyond Ireland. Her accounts of the grotesque presence were published and circulated, turning the elemental from a whispered local legend into one of the most chilling figures in paranormal lore.

Speaker 1: 12:27

The 20th century brought fresh disturbances. When renovations began, workers complained of strange happenings, tools vanished without explanation, shadows flitted along the walls where no one stood and many refused to remain in the castle after dark. Visitors described sudden nausea, dizziness or an overwhelming sense of dread. Some have fainted outright. Others speak of footsteps pacing the bloody chapel or phantom cries echoing in the night. The sulfur smell of the elemental lingers as the most terrifying sign, appearing without warning, sometimes even outdoors in the castle yard.

Speaker 1: 13:17

Paranormal groups from around the world have tested Lep Castle. The Ghost Hunters team filmed here in 2009, reporting phantom footsteps, cold spots and shadowy forms moving through the bloody chapel. Their equipment registered sharp spikes in electromagnetic fields and sudden drops in temperature with no physical explanation. The crew of Most Haunted filmed inside LEP as well. Several members reported waves of nausea. While one investigator claimed he was scratched by unseen hands, others swore they heard guttural growls echoing through the obliqued chamber. Independent investigators have collected their own evidence Electronic voice phenomena, faint words whispered in both English and Gaelic, often sounding like prayers or cries. Thermo cameras have captured human-shaped figures that vanish when approached. Photographs reveal strange orbs of light drifting in the corridors, blinking in and out like fireflies. Even locals visiting without cameras or equipment have stories Of chanting heard in the chapel Of sulfur, stinking in an empty corridor, of being seized by sudden illness so severe they collapsed where they stood and through it all.

Speaker 1: 14:49

Lep remains a home. The family who owns it lives within its walls, carrying on their daily lives alongside the shadows. To them, the castle is not only history or legend, but a living place, a place where the past and present walk side by side. Lep Castle is open to tours. By day, it is a ruin of stone and shadow. By night it becomes something else. Locals rarely go near it. Too many stories, Too much blood in the walls. What sets Lep apart is the elemental Not a ghost, not a memory, but something older, a presence born of violence and ritual, still walking the corridors today. Lep Castle is Ireland's most haunted fortress, a place where the past never rests, where history and horror blur together and where some doors once opened can never be shut.

Speaker 1: 16:10

This has been Out of State, a companion series from State of the Unknown. Short journeys into legends beyond America's borders. If you've been enjoying the show, follow, rate and share it with someone who can't resist a story that lingers Until next time. If you ever find yourself in County Offaly, ireland, beware the smell of sulfur. It may be the only warning you'll get.