Speaker 1: In eighteen ninety eight, a story was published in London's
Speaker 1: Belgravia magazine titled A House of Horrors. Written by author
Speaker 1: Andrew Merry. It told the tale of one Captain Kenneth
Speaker 1: Gordon and his terrifying stay at Kilman Castle in Ireland,
Speaker 1: the home of his cousin Betty O'Connell and her husband Morris.
Speaker 1: The story was later expanded on and republished in The
Speaker 1: Occult Review in December nineteen o eight, after which it
Speaker 1: was discovered that author Andrew Merry was in fact a
Speaker 1: woman called Mildred Derby, who herself lived in a castle
Speaker 1: in Ireland, not Kilman Castle but let Castle in County Offy.
Speaker 1: Derby had been forced to use a pseudonym partly because
Speaker 1: being thought of as a man was considered by publishers
Speaker 1: to be more appealing to readers, but also because her
Speaker 1: husband was embarrassed by her ghostly writings, worried that people
Speaker 1: might start thinking his home was truly haunted. Mildred, who
Speaker 1: many believed was the real Betty O'Connell as depicted in
Speaker 1: her story, later claimed that not only was Lep Castle wanted,
Speaker 1: but that it was quite possibly the most haunted castle
Speaker 1: in all of Ireland, and everything she depicted in her
Speaker 1: story about it was completely true. You're listening to Unexplained,
Speaker 1: and I'm Richard McClain Smith. It was early in November
Speaker 1: eighteen ninety seven, and the captain, recently returned to England
Speaker 1: from India, had traveled to Ireland to spend the weekend
Speaker 1: with his cousin, Mildred Derby and her husband Jonathan. The
Speaker 1: temperature had dropped considerably since he'd boarded in Dublin, causing
Speaker 1: his breath to billow out in large clouds. He watched
Speaker 1: it for a moment as it danced and swirled in
Speaker 1: the air before dissipating under the soft orange light of
Speaker 1: the station's single gas lamp. He took receipt of the
Speaker 1: last of his bags from the attendant, then stood back
Speaker 1: as the man slammed the carriage door shut and with
Speaker 1: a quick, sharp blow of his whistle, signaled for the
Speaker 1: driver to leave. The whistles piercing shrill hung in the
Speaker 1: air as the wheels began to creak and roll, while
Speaker 1: thick plumes of gray smoke trailed up into the sky
Speaker 1: and the train hissed and chugged out at the station
Speaker 1: left alone in the ensuing silence, The captain looked about
Speaker 1: hopefully for any sign of greeting party, but saw only
Speaker 1: a few stone buildings dotted about in the fading light.
Speaker 1: While surrounding him on all sides, endless rolling fields stretched
Speaker 1: out to each horizon, their hedgerows and trees steadily turning
Speaker 1: darker under the purple and violet sky. About a mile away,
Speaker 1: a copse perched on a hilltop was gradually being consumed
Speaker 1: by a thick fog rolling in from the east, while
Speaker 1: somewhere in the distance a fox screeched. A short, pale
Speaker 1: faced man dressed in black and wearing a gray woolen
Speaker 1: cap appeared suddenly on the platform and promptly set about
Speaker 1: gathering the captain's bags. It was the Darby's porter who'd
Speaker 1: been sent out to collect him. After grabbing the last
Speaker 1: of the captain's things, the porter led him out of
Speaker 1: the station to where a horse and a carriage was waiting.
Speaker 1: The captain took his seat in the back while the
Speaker 1: porter stowed away the bags, then jumped up into the
Speaker 1: driver's seat. Then, as the distant fog drew ever closer,
Speaker 1: the porter gave a flick of the reins, and the
Speaker 1: carriage slowly moved off. It was almost dark by the
Speaker 1: time they arrived at the castle entrance, though still light
Speaker 1: enough to discern its grandstone archway and battlement topped walls,
Speaker 1: and the endless tendrils of ivy that clung greedily to
Speaker 1: its surface. Beyond that, however, with the fog having by
Speaker 1: then completely settled in around them, little else could be
Speaker 1: seen until a few minutes later, further up the drive,
Speaker 1: the captain caught sight of two faint, ghostly yellow lights
Speaker 1: materializing from out of the mist, like the eyes of
Speaker 1: some vast vespertin creature, and then the castle's looming silhouette
Speaker 1: began to take shape around them, like something out of
Speaker 1: a dark fairy tale. It was comprised of a central
Speaker 1: rectangular keep, complete with arrow slits and more battlements that
Speaker 1: extended three stories high. Two grand wings to its north
Speaker 1: and south had been built onto it in a slightly
Speaker 1: more Gothic style, while a further building known as the
Speaker 1: Priest's House was also connected to its northern side. No
Speaker 1: sooner had the carriage stopped, the castle's heavy oak doors
Speaker 1: were flung open to reveal the captain's cousin Mildred, or
Speaker 1: Milly as she was known to her friends, surrounded by
Speaker 1: numerous dogs that spilled out onto the driveway and pattered
Speaker 1: eagerly about her feet. The thirty year old Milly, still
Speaker 1: as slight and willowy as the captain remembered her through
Speaker 1: her arms open wide, and bade him aloud welcome to
Speaker 1: her home. Ever since she and her husband Jonathan, first
Speaker 1: moved there ten years before, she'd been trying to convince
Speaker 1: her cousin to visit, and was plainly overjoyed that he'd
Speaker 1: finally made it. After some brief pleasantries, Mildred led the
Speaker 1: captain into the high ceilinged entrance hall. He took a
Speaker 1: moment to take it all in. Regal black and white
Speaker 1: tiles lined the floor, while either side of them, on
Speaker 1: the walls, an endless stretch of portraits had been hung
Speaker 1: depicting members of the Derby family, stretching all the way
Speaker 1: back to the sixteenth century. It was then that Milly's husband,
Speaker 1: Jonathan's ancestor, John Derby of Leicester, an ardent participant of
Speaker 1: the English colonialization of Ireland under Queen Elizabeth I, was
Speaker 1: first linked with the castle, having once been the home
Speaker 1: of the Irish O'Carroll clan. It was captured and recaptured
Speaker 1: a number of times over the next hundred odd years.
Speaker 1: In sixteen forty one, as the English Crown attempted to
Speaker 1: strengthen its grip on the island, an army led by
Speaker 1: a young Oliver Cromwell captured Lep Castle again for the English.
Speaker 1: The building and its land was then taken from its
Speaker 1: Irish owners and handed to the Derby family for their
Speaker 1: services to Queen Elizabeth under the newly established laws of
Speaker 1: the Invading Power. It had remained the Derby's property ever since,
Speaker 1: and in the late eighteen eighties, by virtue of nothing
Speaker 1: other than the fortune of birth and family lineage, it
Speaker 1: passed into the possession of Milly's husband. Having retired to
Speaker 1: the main hall to drink coffees and whiskey, the captain
Speaker 1: regaled Milly and Jonathan with stories of as many escapades
Speaker 1: in exotic, far off lands. As the house staff silently
Speaker 1: tended to the fire and topped up their glasses. It
Speaker 1: had just gone eleven thirty when a strange, mournful cry
Speaker 1: was heard. It came from the couple's sizable dear hound
Speaker 1: that was sleeping in the corridor. As Jonathan explained wearily,
Speaker 1: it happened the same time every night for some unknown reason,
Speaker 1: before turning to his wife and baiting her playfully about
Speaker 1: how she was convinced that ghosts were to blame. The
Speaker 1: Captain couldn't help but laugh at the ludicrous suggestion, but
Speaker 1: Milly was undeterred. That had been all manner of strange
Speaker 1: occurrences since they'd moved in, she insisted, from the unusual
Speaker 1: cries heard coming from vacant rooms at night to the
Speaker 1: constant sound of footsteps padding along the empty corridors. She
Speaker 1: didn't mind it, though, she said. As Jonathan rolled his eyes,
Speaker 1: it was all nonsense, he said, clearly the house staff
Speaker 1: had been playing tricks on her. Later, with Millie already
Speaker 1: retired to bed, the Captain shared a final nightcap with Jonathan.
Speaker 1: Then together they made their way up the wide oak staircase,
Speaker 1: with Jonathan leading the way, oil lamp in hand as
Speaker 1: he pushed back the shadows. Moving through into a wide gallery,
Speaker 1: they continued on to a door at the bottom of it,
Speaker 1: behind which was a short, narrow corridor that led directly
Speaker 1: to the Captain's room. Jonathan wished his guest a pleasant night,
Speaker 1: then retreated to his own quarters at the far end
Speaker 1: of the castle. The room was oddly elongated, but homely enough,
Speaker 1: complete with the double bed and a small dressing table
Speaker 1: on which a wash basin full of recently heated water
Speaker 1: had been placed, and at the far end a lit
Speaker 1: fire was busily heating the room. After washing his face,
Speaker 1: the captain changed quickly into his nightclothes. Then, after lighting
Speaker 1: a candle, he blew out the room single oil lamp
Speaker 1: and laid the candle on his bedside table. Looking at
Speaker 1: the door and the key in its lock, he thought
Speaker 1: back on what Jonathan said about the staff playing tricks
Speaker 1: on Mildred, and decided it best he locked the door
Speaker 1: lest they be tempted to try anything on him. Then
Speaker 1: he hopped into bed and blew out the candle. No
Speaker 1: sooner had his head hit the pillow, however, he became
Speaker 1: aware of a wet, gurgling sound. It was coming from
Speaker 1: under the bed. Hello, he said, suddenly, feeling a little
Speaker 1: exposed in the pitch black of the night, the captain
Speaker 1: hurriedly lit the candle and jumped out of the bed.
Speaker 1: Stepping nimbly to the fireplace, He grabbed a poker and
Speaker 1: swished it about in the space underneath the mattress. It
Speaker 1: connected with something lumpen and soft. It emitted a short
Speaker 1: yelp before scurrying out from underneath. It was now the
Speaker 1: Darby's white Fox terrier. The captain cursed her as she
Speaker 1: trotted over to the fireplace and curled up in front
Speaker 1: of it. Not having the heart to throw her out,
Speaker 1: the captain returned the poker to its holder, then got
Speaker 1: back into bed and blew out the candle. It was
Speaker 1: some time later that the captain woke with a start
Speaker 1: in the frigid night air, with a seemingly terrified knell
Speaker 1: pouring manically at its chest. Throwing the dog to the floor,
Speaker 1: he scolded her for waking him, then turned wearily on
Speaker 1: to his side and closed his eyes. Seconds later, the
Speaker 1: dog was up at him again, whimpering now and clawing
Speaker 1: at the sheets, desperate to get under them. Her legs
Speaker 1: were trembling. Grabbing the dog again, he threw her heavily
Speaker 1: to the floor, causing her to whimper and scurry off
Speaker 1: under the bed. Feeling suddenly guilty for the harsh treatment,
Speaker 1: the captain called out for nell in the dark to
Speaker 1: come back to him, but the dog wouldn't move. Calling
Speaker 1: out again, he reached his hand down into the gap
Speaker 1: under the bed and held it out in a modest
Speaker 1: show of supplication. Having held it there for the best
Speaker 1: part of a minute to no avail, he was just
Speaker 1: about to draw it back when he felt a cold
Speaker 1: hand slip into it. The captain pulled back in terror
Speaker 1: and stared in disbelief at his hand. Then he heard
Speaker 1: the sound of something slumping to the floor at the
Speaker 1: end of the bed. Hurriedly, lighting the candle once more,
Speaker 1: he jumped from the bed, relieved to find he was
Speaker 1: completely alone in the room. Then he looked down to
Speaker 1: check underneath the bed, only to find his view obscured
Speaker 1: by a sheet now dangling over the side of it.
Speaker 1: Taking a deep breath, he readied himself, then took hold
Speaker 1: of the sheet and with one hand, flung it back
Speaker 1: in one quick motion. There was no one there either,
Speaker 1: believing it must have been a trick of the mind.
Speaker 1: It was only then that he became aware of what
Speaker 1: sounded like a voice, quickly repeating words over and over
Speaker 1: again from somewhere in the middle of the room. The
Speaker 1: dog shot out from under the bed and began clawing
Speaker 1: at the walls, startling him all over again. Then he
Speaker 1: saw the stain on the floor boards at the foot
Speaker 1: of the bed. Convinced it had not been there before,
Speaker 1: he knelt down for a closer look. It was a
Speaker 1: dark burgundy in color and seemed to glisten under the
Speaker 1: candle light, and when he touched it, his finger tips
Speaker 1: came away wet and red. He looked up at the ceiling,
Speaker 1: but saw no sign that anything had leaked through it.
Speaker 1: He then checked the door, both relieved and perturbed to
Speaker 1: find it was still locked, just as before. Confused, he
Speaker 1: washed his hands in the basin. Then, after satisfying himself
Speaker 1: that he was truly alone, he returned once more to
Speaker 1: bed and blew out the candle. What makes a Murderer's
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Speaker 1: Plus in the Wandry app Oh that, said Milly, after
Speaker 1: the captain inquired about the unusual stain he was certain
Speaker 1: he'd seen, which come the morning had vanished completely. We
Speaker 1: have no idea where it comes from. However, as she
Speaker 1: went on to explain, some staff had taken to calling
Speaker 1: that bedroom the murder room since one of the macaul brothers,
Speaker 1: who once owned the castle, was said to have been
Speaker 1: stabbed to death in there. Perhaps the events were linked,
Speaker 1: suggested Milly, but the captain, not quite yet willing to
Speaker 1: believe her tales of ghosts, could only smile politely in reply.
Speaker 1: Later that day, Milly gave the captain a tour of
Speaker 1: the house, including a thorough account of all the additions
Speaker 1: they'd made to the original property, not least of all
Speaker 1: the north and south wings. During their construction. Many strange
Speaker 1: things had been pulled out at the mortar of the
Speaker 1: original walls, from human hair to shards of bone, and
Speaker 1: even the odd skull. To finish off, she took him
Speaker 1: to the highest room of all the castle's old chapel,
Speaker 1: located on the third floor of the keep. It was
Speaker 1: here that they discovered the ubliette, she said, pointing to
Speaker 1: a large pit in the northeastern corner of the room,
Speaker 1: Taken from the French word meaning the place of forgetting.
Speaker 1: In English, a nubliet is a secret dungeon over which
Speaker 1: hapless victims would be made to stand before they realized
Speaker 1: what they were standing on was in fact a trap door.
Speaker 1: When the door was released, the victim would then plunge
Speaker 1: to their death, either becoming impaled on spikes at the
Speaker 1: bottom of the pit or simply falling so heavily they
Speaker 1: would be unable to escape and eventually starved to death.
Speaker 1: They knew it had been a newbliette because three cart
Speaker 1: loads of bones had been found crushed into the floor
Speaker 1: of it. As Milly went on to explain, it was
Speaker 1: in the chapel that another of the McCarroll clan, who
Speaker 1: was a priest, decided to begin mass one afternoon before
Speaker 1: his brother was in attendance. When the brother with whom
Speaker 1: the priest was fighting with the ownership of the castle,
Speaker 1: eventually arrived, he promptly stabbed the priest through the heart
Speaker 1: and left him bleed to death on the altar. Later
Speaker 1: that night, the Darbies and the Captain, having been joined
Speaker 1: by more friends of Mildred's and Jonathan's, gathered together in
Speaker 1: the main hall for a night of drinks and songs,
Speaker 1: and once again, at eleven thirty pm, they were interrupted
Speaker 1: by the sound of their deerhound wailing. Bale flee outside
Speaker 1: in the corridor, having requested a different room for the evening.
Speaker 1: After retiring to bed for the night, the Captain found
Speaker 1: himself in a room adjacent to the chapel. Not thrilled
Speaker 1: at the prospect of sleeping alone, he brought Nell the
Speaker 1: terrier to join him once again. Having ushered her inside
Speaker 1: and locked the door behind him, he placed a rug
Speaker 1: by the fire and invited Nell to make herself comfortable.
Speaker 1: After taking a seat in an armchair beside her, he
Speaker 1: set about composing a number of letters he'd been meaning
Speaker 1: to write for some time. A good hour had passed
Speaker 1: by with the Captain deep in thought, when he looked
Speaker 1: up to see the fire had almost entirely gone out.
Speaker 1: After throwing another block of peat onto the smoldering ashes,
Speaker 1: it was only then that he noticed Nell was no
Speaker 1: longer lying on the rug beside him. The Captain looked
Speaker 1: up and whistled for the dog to come back, but
Speaker 1: heard nothing in reply. Getting up to investigate, he quickly
Speaker 1: spotted her wist firmly underneath a desk at the far
Speaker 1: end of the room. Though she resisted at first, he
Speaker 1: was eventually able to coax her out and brought her
Speaker 1: back to the fire, where she soon settled once again.
Speaker 1: Seconds later, however, she was up on her legs staring
Speaker 1: at the door with her ears pinned right back. Then
Speaker 1: the captain heard it too, like something was scratching at
Speaker 1: the wood from the other side. By now thoroughly convinced
Speaker 1: it was the staff playing tricks on him after all,
Speaker 1: the captain decided to give them a taste of their
Speaker 1: own medicine. He grabbed his revolver, then marched straight up
Speaker 1: to the door and turned the key. Then, with the
Speaker 1: gun in his hand, he swiftly opened the door, only
Speaker 1: to find nothing but the empty corridor beyond. With the
Speaker 1: light from his room being enough to illuminate the corridor
Speaker 1: or the way to the end, he could see also
Speaker 1: the door there was slightly ajar beyond which only the
Speaker 1: pitch black darkness of the gallery behind it could be seen.
Speaker 1: With his gun trained on that far door, he stood
Speaker 1: fixed to the spot as he stared into the blackness
Speaker 1: of the gallery, waiting for any sign of movement. After
Speaker 1: a few more minutes of nothing, he took the lit
Speaker 1: candle from his bedside table and stepped out into the corridor.
Speaker 1: I know you're there, said the captain glumly, as he
Speaker 1: continued on his way, taking slow, short steps, being careful
Speaker 1: not to let the flame go out. Finally, he reached
Speaker 1: the door and pushed it wider, holding the candle in
Speaker 1: front of him to light the room behind, but that
Speaker 1: room too was completely empty. Annoyed at having let himself
Speaker 1: get worked up for nothing, the captain turned and hurried
Speaker 1: back to his room, locking the door behind him, before
Speaker 1: returning to his chair by the fire, with now joining him.
Speaker 1: Soon after, he turned his attention back to the letters,
Speaker 1: but just as he was at to start another one,
Speaker 1: the most horrid, thunderous bang was hurt from the other
Speaker 1: side of the door, startling him from his chair. After
Speaker 1: taking a moment to gather himself, he grabbed for the
Speaker 1: revolver once more and demanded to know who on earth
Speaker 1: was bothering him at this hour, but his demand was
Speaker 1: met with only silence. Then the scratching started up again,
Speaker 1: the clear sound of something scraping at the wood, softly
Speaker 1: at first, then growing steadily in intensity, louder and louder,
Speaker 1: until having heard enough, the captain raced to the door,
Speaker 1: turned the key and flung it wide open, but once
Speaker 1: again there was only the empty corridor beyond. The captain
Speaker 1: peered out for a few more seconds, then was just
Speaker 1: about to close the door when he caught the faint
Speaker 1: whiff of something put tried in the air, like warm
Speaker 1: meat that had been left out to rot, And from
Speaker 1: somewhere in the darkness beyond the door to the gallery
Speaker 1: came a strange, leaden shuffling sound. Again, the captain stood
Speaker 1: his ground, waiting expectantly for whoever it was, to show themselves.
Speaker 1: That's it, he said, angrily, too, can play at this game.
Speaker 1: He slammed the door shut, but this time remained standing
Speaker 1: behind it with revolver in hand as he waited for
Speaker 1: the strange noises to begin again. Sure Enough, a short
Speaker 1: time later, the weird shuffling started up again, approaching from
Speaker 1: the far end of the corridor, now began to growl
Speaker 1: by the fire. The captain turned to her, holding a
Speaker 1: finger to his lips, then, with the revolver ready in
Speaker 1: his other hand, back to the door as that eerie sound,
Speaker 1: as though someone were pulling their entire body along the
Speaker 1: floor with only their arms, drew ever nearer to the door.
Speaker 1: Closer and closer it came, until with one final drag,
Speaker 1: whatever it was stopped right outside the door. Then the
Speaker 1: handle began to rattle violently, and the entire door began
Speaker 1: to shake in its frame, enough, said the captain, as
Speaker 1: he flung the door wide open and screamed with unbridled
Speaker 1: horror at the terrible sight of what stood before him.
Speaker 1: As Mildred Darby herself described it, the thing, which was
Speaker 1: no more than three feet tall, was thin, gaunt, and shadowy,
Speaker 1: its face a little more than a vile replica of human,
Speaker 1: with large holes of blackness for eyes, loose slobbery lips,
Speaker 1: and a thick, saliva dripping jaw which sloped back into
Speaker 1: its neck. Where its nose ought to have been was
Speaker 1: nothing but a vast, cancerous cavity that had spread across
Speaker 1: its face, into which seemed to be continually expanding and contracting.
Speaker 1: A coarse dark hair covered its head, neck, and body,
Speaker 1: while at the end of its upper limbs, bony, clawlike
Speaker 1: fingers scratched at the air. The captain stared into the black,
Speaker 1: cavernous eyes as the putrid stench of it flooded his nostrils,
Speaker 1: causing him to wretch and gag, and only then did
Speaker 1: he notice the transparency of its lower half, as if
Speaker 1: it were caught somewhere between emerging and evaporating. In one
Speaker 1: swift movement, the creature leapt forward causing the captain to
Speaker 1: stumble back before he gathered himself and pointed his revolver
Speaker 1: at it, shooting repeatedly to no effect. The last thing
Speaker 1: he remembered was the thing flicking out a limb toward
Speaker 1: his head, and then everything went black. The next morning,
Speaker 1: he awoke as a doctor tended to a large gash
Speaker 1: on his temple, while Mildred and Jonathan looked on with
Speaker 1: grave concern. When asked what on earth had happened, the
Speaker 1: captain struggled to piece it all together. Remembering now, he
Speaker 1: asked if she was okay. Milly, through a concerned glance
Speaker 1: at Jonathan, then looked back to the captain. The dog
Speaker 1: had sadly not survived the night. If you enjoy Unexplained
Speaker 1: and would like to help support us, you can now
Speaker 1: do so via Patreon. To receive access to add free episodes,
Speaker 1: just go to patron dot com forward slash Unexplained Pod
Speaker 1: to sign up. Unexplained. The book and audiobook, featuring ten
Speaker 1: stories that have never before been covered on the show,
Speaker 1: is now available to buy worldwide. You can purchase through Amazon,
Speaker 1: Barnes and Noble, and Waterstones, among other bookstores. All elements
Speaker 1: of Unexplained, including the show's music, are produced by me
Speaker 1: Richard McClain Smith. Please subscribe and rate the show wherever
Speaker 1: you listen to podcasts, and feel free to get in
Speaker 1: touch with any thoughts or ideas regarding the stories you've
Speaker 1: heard on the show. Perhaps you have an explanation of
Speaker 1: your own you'd like to share. You can reach us
Speaker 1: online at Unexplained podcast dot com, or Twitter at Unexplained
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