My mother always says you should be more afraid of the living than the dead, so I tend to take tales of hauntings with a pinch of salt. Yet, standing on the top floor of Loftus Hall — which is purported to be Ireland’s most haunted house — even this cynic felt a shiver down her spine when the lights went out.

Restoring the great hall with its sweeping staircase took a large chunk of the €1.5m budget
The house’s owner, Aidan Quigley, was giving me a tour of the three-storey, 22-bedroom Palladian mansion, which sits on the windswept Hook Head peninsula in Co Wexford. He bought the near-derelict property in 2011 and turned it into a destination for paranormal tours and sleepover events.
The house has its origins in the 12th century, and has historic connections including the Normans, Oliver