We've all seen The Haunting of Bly Manor, right? We're all locked in the gaff all the time and it's been top of the Netflix charts for ages, so it's reasonable to assume that every single person in Ireland has now seen it. That doesn't mean that we can delve into spoilers, but we can talk about it a bit.
Like, how much are they loving that Wild Mountain Thyme turned up and stole all the shite accent heat they must have been getting? For a show that was meant to be set in Essex in the late 80s, it sounded awfully like they'd got a load of Americans to watch one episode of Downtown Abbey and then decided that everyone in the UK still speaks like that.
If you were enjoying lockdown, and enjoyed Bly Manor, but also enjoy living in Ireland, then you're in luck: there's a place on our very island that can make your lockdown isolation perfect. Well, we say isolation...there's only the ghosts that you'll have to deal with. That's right - one of Ireland's most haunted houses is set to be renovated and put back on the market.
Cairndhu House in Ballygalley, Co Antrim, is exactly the sort of house that an Irish version of the hit Netflix show would love. It's a real heavy-hitter in terms of haunting potential: it has the requisite ancient noble who built it, a Scottish industrialist called Stewart Clark, before being turned into a convalescent home and hospital in the 1940s, adding an extra level of lost souls.
Naturally, it's had reports of hauntings since pretty much day one. An urban explorer who visited in 2010 described it as a "haunted hotspot" and said that she "managed to pick up some very clear EVP (electronic voice phenomena) as well as both myself and my partner seeing a shadowy figure in front of us."
It's been sat empty since the 1980s, and at least report, the floors had fallen through and the walls were about to topple in. Now, a new development is set to take the place of Cairndhu House - a retirement village.
Johann Muldoon, managing director of Manor Architects, said: "This ambitious scheme will see the restoration of Cairndhu House and stable block facilitated by a first-of-its-kind retirement village on the Causeway Coastal Route adjacent to Carnfunnock Country Park."
As a gang of half-dead, superstitious beings, the elderly residents of Larne will fit right in with the ghosts.
Featured Image Credit:Topics: Ireland