Cavan hotel second scariest in the world

FRIGHT NIGHTS:IT WASN'T screams of terror but shrieks of delight which echoed down the corridors of an old Irish castle this week after it had been declared the second scariest hotel in the world by hotel rating site Trip Advisor.

Each week Trip Advisor carries a number of top tens on its homepage and, to tie in with Halloween, it has been carrying lists of the world’s most haunted hotels and Cabra Castle Hotel in Kingscourt Co Cavan made it to the number two spot.

The hotel dates back to 1760 but has been in the Crosscadden family for just 20 years. The family are “delighted” to have been included on the list. “I wasn’t even aware of it to be honest,” said Deirdre Crosscadden, “but it is lovely to see.”

She said that while the ghostly legends about the hotel and its grounds have been circulating for generations, she has seen nothing untoward in her time. She said American visitors in particular get a buzz from their brushes with the netherworld, both in the hotel and near the “Hanging Tree” in the grounds.

Rose Garvey Malone has worked at the hotel for 25 years and hasn’t seen any ghosts either, although she has spoken to many guests who have.

Last year one told her of meeting a man in full early 20th century military uniform striding down the corridor, another heard a horse and carriage pull in to the courtyard in the dead of night before depositing a screaming infant at the steps of the hotel, while a third guest walked in on a row about the sale of the castle between an elderly man and his son.

The Cavan castle was pipped for the top spot by the Hotel del Coronado in California. It has hosted an impressive 16 US presidents and all manner of Hollywood royalty but its most famous ghost is a little known woman called Kate Morgan. She checked into the hotel in November 1893 hoping to meet her doctor husband. She needed to see him, as he had her cancer medication, but he never showed and she was found dead days later. She had shot herself in the head.

Guests have reported ghastly screams, flickering lights, floating objects and corpses passing through the corridors ever since which might make it the most well-appointed zombie hotel in the world.