Renvyle House was said to be haunted long before the poet Yeats entered the hotel and decided to hold a séance. What they experienced there, however, sounded almost as fantastic as one of his stories, and today it holds a fascinating history of newfangled spiritualism and occult seances.
Set amidst the picturesque countryside of Galway, Ireland, Renvyle House is today a charming country hotel exuding warmth and hospitality. But it hasn't always been this way and there is a murky history of the occult ricocheting through many rooms.
Within its inviting walls, guests, including renowned Irish poet and spiritualist William Butler Yeats, have experienced blood-curdling encounters with supernatural forces and, who knows, maybe even summoned some?
Renvyle House, a low, sprawling gray building on the west coast of Ireland, has a storied history marked by construction, destruction and rebirth. It has withstood the turbulent changes in Ireland's fortunes, standing as a testament to the nation's enduring spirit.
A hotel with a turbulent past
The site was originally inhabited from the 12th century by the powerful Gaelic clan of Donal O'Flaherty. In 1689, the Blakes, one of the 14 Galway tribes, purchased 2,000 acres of O'Flaherty land and finally settled in 1822. They converted the humble thatched cottage into a grander dwelling.
Major renovations, including the addition of a wooden shipwreck extension and a slate roof, took place during Henry Blake's ownership. In 1883, his widow, Caroline Johanna, converted it into the first hotel in the area, opening its doors to guests seeking Connemara's natural beauty.
In 1923, during the Irish Civil War, the IRA set fire to the house, destroying the entire building along with Gogarty's priceless library. Surgeon, poet and statesman Oliver St. John Gogarty, who purchased the estate in 1917, undertook its reconstruction in the overdue 1920s.
The fresh design reflected the aesthetics of the era, restoring Renvyle House as a hotel. It was during his reign that the first incredible stories about ghostly encounters began to emerge, and his guests often included people with a keen interest in paranormal phenomena.
A haunting presence at Renvyle House
It was said that even before Yeats came to visit, the Renvyle house had a haunted reputation. The servants working at Renvyle House often spoke in whispers about the disturbing “embarrassments” that seemed to lurk in the shadows of the house. Sheets were inexplicably flying from their resting places, doors were opening and closing without a human hand to guide them, and the atmosphere was charged with otherworldly energy.
One night the owner himself, the writer Oliver St. John Gogarty, experienced what he believed must have been paranormal. In the middle of the night, he was roused from sleep by an intrusive alarm. As midnight approached, he woke up to the sound of weighty footsteps in the corridor outside his room, getting closer.
Gogarty lit a candle and set out to confront the source of the confusion. Maybe it was a guest, or maybe a servant walking at night? However, as he entered the corridor, an icy gust extinguished the flame he carried. At that point, he described an inexplicable heaviness in his limbs, as if he were “exercising on rubber ropes.” The ghostly presence disappeared, leaving him alone in complete darkness.
The Arrival of William Butler Yeats
Supernatural activity at Renvyle House reached its zenith when Gogarty's close friend, the renowned poet William Butler Yeats, and his wife Georgia took up residence. Yeats grew up in Sligo, a part of Ireland known for hauntings and fantastic fairy tales that blended into the everyday lives of its inhabitants.
Yeats believed that when a dead person was spoken of, his spirit was invoked, and he and his wife, who acted as a medium for them, had a habit of chasing ghosts and exploring the afterlife.
Together they set off on a journey to the land of paranormal phenomena. The couple was very interested in the occult, as it was both fresh and fashionable in this field, so they attended many séances.
One evening, gathered in the library, the Yeats and their companions were startled by the creaking of the library door, which slowly opened of its own accord. Fear gripped the room, but Yeats, resolute and unyielding, raised his hand and boldly declared: “Leave it alone, it will go away just like it came.” Interestingly, the door obeyed and slammed shut with unsettling finality.
The Yeats decided to explore the secrets of Renvyle House using automatic writing, a popular method of communicating with spirits at the time. During the séance, they hoped to discover the secrets of the house's restless spirits.
There was one room in particular where Yeats claimed to be in contact with an entity who stated that he did not like strangers coming to the house.
His wife told how she saw a red-haired boy with a pale face, about fourteen years vintage. “He had the solemn pallor of a tragedy beyond the endurance of a child.” – recalls Georgia Yeats. They learned that this melancholy figure belonged to the Blake family, the original owners of the house.
Catholic exorcism
According to the people gathered in the hall, among them was Evan Morgan, who had just converted to Catholicism. He was confident that he could perform an exorcism in the room where the ghosts were.
They said he was thrown to the ground by stout fog and required assist to get to safety. When he calmed down, he claimed he was met by the same youthful man who grabbed him by the throat and knocked him down.
The rest of the ghost haunting the hotel
However, the ghost from the séance is not the only ghost said to have been recognized. Some claim that some of the rooms are haunted by children, and one of the men haunting the hotel is said to have choked to death.
According to those who stayed there, female ghosts called Old Mrs. Gogarty were seen at the hotel.
There is also a man dressed in tweed who is reported to haunt the place and appears in room 27. There have also been complaints of him watching women in their rooms while they are applying makeup. When some clairvoyants visited him in 1965, they concluded that the ghost must have been that of Yeats himself, and this theory has since been accepted as fact.
A fiery end and lingering ghosts
Despite a fiery end at the hands of the IRA, Renvyle House rose from the ashes, rebuilt and resolute. However, the passage of time did not deter restless spirits from wandering the corridors. To this day, visitors and employees report eerie encounters and unexplainable phenomena within these historic walls.
Renvyle House remains not only an oasis of hospitality, but also a portal to the enigmatic world of the supernatural, where echoes of the past still whisper their secrets.
Reference:
Low long sea gray house | Renvyle House Hotel & Resort ****, Connemara, Co. Galway, H91 X8Y8
Hotel Renvyle House | Haunted Galway, Ireland | Ghost Island
Renvyle House Hotel, Galway, Ireland | Haunted Rooms®
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