Legends of Howth Castle
Howth Castle is located near the village of Howth in Fingal, Dublin. Built in the mid-fifteenth century, it has had a long and interesting history. There are a number of stories told about the castle that may or may not be true. However, they do make for interesting reading.
Grace O’Malley
It is said that in the sixteenth century, when Grace O’Malley was returning from a visit to Queen Elizabeth I, she landed at Howth harbour. Grace headed to the castle, intending to dine with Lord Howth to re-stock her ship in preparation for her voyage back to Co.Mayo. However, when she arrived she found the gates locked, which was a clear breach of the rules of Irish hospitality. She was outraged.
They story goes that the young heir to Lord Howth was down at the seashore with his nurse, looking at her ship, and Grace was so angry at the insult dealt to her by his father that she ordered the child to be taken and put aboard her ship. The boy was taken to her castle in Clew Bay, County Mayo. Negotiations took place. Lord Howth insisted that no insult to her was intended. He told her that it was customary for the gates to be locked when the family were at dinner.
She refused to release the child back to his father until an agreement had been reached that in the future when the family went to dinner the castle gates would be left open and an extra place would be laid at the table, in accordance with the rules of Irish hospitality. Lord Howth agreed and the custom was strictly observed until his death. There is a painting of the abduction of the young heir of the House of St Laurence hanging in one of the state apartments in the castle,
Nicola Hamilton
There is a painting in the drawing room of the castle that is linked to another story. The painting is of a beautiful young woman. On the back of the frame there is an unsigned, undated note. It tells us that at one time there was a black ribbon around the wrist of the young woman that was accidently removed when the picture was being cleaned.
The woman in the portrait is Nicola Hamilton, who was born in 1667. As a young girl it is said that she made an agreement with John Poer, Earl of Tyrone, that whoever died first would return from the dead and appear to the other. Le Poer was the first to die and it is said that he appeared to her one night and told her about her future.
He told her that her husband, Sir Tristram Berisford, would soon die and that her son would grow up and eventually marry an heiress. He also told her the time of her own death. It would be in her forty-seventh year. All these predictions are said to have come to pass. To convince her that he had really appeared to her in the flesh, so to speak, he grabbed her wrist and his touch left a permanent scar. The black ribbon was worn to conceal this scar.
The White Rat
The White Rat of Howth appears when evil threatens the House of St Laurence or so the story goes. Folklore tells us that its first appearance was around the seventeenth century, when it appeared to Lord Howth.
One stormy winter night, a ship was seen to be in great difficulty in Howth Bay. The storm was so bad that the ship was dashed against the rocks. Those watching from the shore could do nothing to save her and she was smashed to pieces. It was thought that no one could possibly survive but early next morning a young woman was found washed up on the shore, still clinging to a piece of the ship’s wreckage. She was brought to nearby Howth Castle but she was not expected to live.
When Lord Howth heard that a survivor of the wreck had been found, he went to the room where she was being cared for to see her himself. He was immediately struck by her beauty and ordered that she must get every assistance to help her recover. Once she had recovered from her terrible ordeal, he begged her to remain with him in the castle and to this she agreed. He became infatuated with her and believed he was madly in love. He pleaded with her to marry him over and over again but over and over again she refused. She begged him to find another, someone more suited to his position.
Eventually he became frustrated and, realising he would never get her to agree to marry him; he decided to find another to marry. His Bride was from a noble family and well suited to his position. The young woman told him that it was now time for her to leave. She gave him a ribbon that had strange symbols on it and asked him to wear it at all times on his wrist in memory of her and their time together. The following day she left Howth Castle, never to be seen again.
His new Bride was extremely interested in the ribbon he wore all the time, especially when she found out it was a gift from someone she considered a rival. One night when he was fast asleep she carefully untied the ribbon and removed it from his wrist. Later she said that she had only taken it over to the fire to look at it but for some reason it was sucked into the flames and immediately burnt. Lord Howth was not amused and it is said he predicted ill fortune would be the result.
A few nights later Lord Howth had invited a number of friends to a feast in the Great Hall when all of a sudden the castle hounds chased a large rat into the dining area. The rat leapt up onto the table right in front of Lord Howth. It looked at Lord Howth and seemed to be begging him to save its life. Lord Howth ordered the hounds away and rescued the rat, who accompanied him everywhere thereafter, much to everyone’s amazement. Needless to say his wife was not a happy lady. The rat followed them everywhere and would not even stay behind when they were visiting.
In a way what happened next was, to all intents and purposes, the rat’s own fault. It just wouldn’t listen. Lord Howth decided to travel to France with his brother. They loved going on hunting trips and touring the French countryside. The rat was, as far as they were concerned, back in Ireland. They were sitting by the fire in their hotel when who should appear, all soaking wet and with a pronounced limp, but the rat. Lord Howth’s brother, fed up of the rat at this stage, jumped up, grabbed the poker and before anyone could do anything to stop him he hit the rat right between the eyes, killing it stone dead.
Lord Howth jumped up and, seeing that the rat was dead, cried out, ‘Holy mother of God, you’ve murdered me!’
He died that very night.
They say the rat still haunts the castle.
