Have a spooktacular Halloween!

Start at St Kevin’s Park on Camden Row, where you’ll find the graveyard famous  for bodysnatching in the 19th century.  At the time, bodies would fetch a high price and were frequently sold to medical students. Famous body snatchers include the infamous  Burke and Hare (the subject of a namesake movie in 2010). It was later discovered that  the bodies they sold on were not actually snatched but their own murder victims.

 Try St Patricks cathedral, where there’s a tale that tells of a young woman who was almost buried alive. Only when the funeral attendants tried to steal her wedding ring was she revived.  The woman ran screaming from the church and it is said that her screams can be heard at the same time she was almost buried every year.

Next to St Patricks cathedral is Marshe’s Library set up by Bishop Narcissus Marshe in the 19th century. The ghost of Marshe is still said to haunt the place searching for a letter left for him by his niece that he raised as his own. The story goes that his niece eloped with a sailor, and knowing that she would break his heart she left a letter rather than say goodbye. The letter is said to be hidden in her favourite book which Marshe is damned to find.

 Don’t miss the 40 steps to Hell outside St Audoen’s church, the oldest parish church in Dublin.

At night you can almost hear the ghost of Darky Kelly looking for her baby.  Legend has it she was pregnant with the Sheriff of Dublin, Simon Lutrell’s baby. Fearing for his job, the Sheriff denounced Darky as a witch. She was a well known brothel owner and lady of the night so no one disagreed. She was burnt on the stake. Her ghost is said to wander here amongst the lepers and the criminals looking for her child amongst all the abandoned babies. The 40 steps are actually only 39, if you count them, climb them for yourself and see!

Make sure to pop into the Castle Inn on Lord Edward Street. The poet James Clarence Mangan was born in this very building. His life was short but lived to the fullest he died in 1849, but he is said to still drop into the inn dropping the temperature and creating depression in the premises! Might need a whiskey to stay warm!

Finally end up in the Brazen head on lower bridge street for a well deserved drink. The oldest pub in Dublin was once the haunt of Robert Emmet, the rebellious leader who was hanged and beheaded. He still appears in ghostly form. Sitting in the corner looking for enemies, and well he should, his executioner was said to come here.