5 Allegdly Haunted Bars and Restaurants to Get You in Spooky Mood This Halloween
Words: Hannah Lemass
The streets of this fair city are paved with history and tradgey, and therefore we have a bounty of legends and ghost stories at every turn. Some of our most chilling tales take place within the walls of our favorite pubs and restaurants. You never know where a soul, spook, or ghost might be hiding.
It’s spooky season, and there are a hundred and one ways to get in the spirit. You can sit at home and carve pumpkins, scare yourself silly with horror films, go to a haunted house, or attend an even scarier scaldy house party. Or you could explore the eerie but still pleasantly atmospheric surrounds of some of your local ‘allegedly’ haunted hospitality hotspots.
Here are five haunts where you can enjoy a candlelit meal or cozy pint, content in the knowledge that the spirits behind the bar are NOT the only ones surrounding you.
20 Lower Bridge St
It’s no surprise that Dublin’s oldest pub is also reportedly one of its most haunted. Most people think the scariest thing here is the overzealous American tourists who frequent it, but despite being a tourist hotspot, the Brazen Head is indeed a wonderful pub with great food, storytelling, live music, and buckets of character and charm.
It’s the kind of place that you’ll keep coming back to, and you’ll be in good company. Robert Emmet, the Irish revolutionary war hero, is believed to still be among the regulars of this beloved pub, despite having died over 220 years ago. Emmet was hanged and beheaded on nearby Thomas Street in 1803 and his ghost has been spotted at the pub where rebel meetings were held. He’s not the only ghostie haunting the Brazen Head but he is the most famous.
39 Camden St
When you step through the doors of Delahunt, it’s like stepping back in time. The team here have allowed the interiors to pay homage to the grocer that once occupied the grand old building. This location is a part of the fabric of Camden Street and was even mentioned in James Joyce’s Ulysses. While the ghost of Joyce is believed to haunt Davey Byrne’s on Duke Street, here they have their own spooky spectres to deal with.
Owner Darren and the staff report feeling like they are not alone, even when there are no other living bodies in the space. As the team renovated the building, they spotted the manifestation of a man in the alley behind the kitchen. Above the restaurant is the Sitting Room Bar, which was once home to the family that ran the grocers, and it’s up here that the bartender once heard the sound of a phantom baby crying. She hunted all around for a source of the disturbance, even wandering out onto the street, but could find no trace of a human baby.
The building was the site of tragedy in 1916, when Irish rebels were hiding out in Delahunt. Cllr Richard O’Carroll was mortally wounded when British soldiers attacked their position, executing him in the street.
27 St Stephen’s Green
The Shelbourne is the jewel of Dublin—an absolute legend on the green. Anyone who’s anyone has stayed here, and anyone who’s anyone has a ghost story to tell. Even actress Lily Collins had a spooky experience while staying here, saying she felt a presence in her room, heard giggling, and slamming doors. The disturbance was attributed to the ghost of a little girl named Mary. In the 1960s, British psychic Sybil Lee concluded that the Shelbourne’s most famous spirit was that of Mary Matsers, a seven-year-old girl who lived in the houses that the hotel was converted from and died in 1846.
But don’t worry; if you’re popping into the Shelbourne for a nice dinner in The Saddle Room or a pint, in The Horseshoe Bar you probably won’t have a run-in with Mary, who likes to hang out on the sixth floor.
1 Prospect Square
A pub located right next to one of the country’s biggest and most famous graveyard is obviously going to make it onto a list of haunted spots in town. John Kavanagh’s, or The Gravediggers as it is known, is one of Ireland’s best bars without a doubt. It is also one of the most haunted.
Open since 1833, the pub is wrapped up in lore of grave robbers, body snatchers and, of course, gravediggers. Although they are much more well known these days for their creamy pints, delicious food, and unmatched hospitality, there are still reportedly some spooky hangers-on from bygone times. The sound of jangling keys and an apparition of a young girl in a nightgown are among just some of the strange happenings. One of the more regular spiritual customers is an older gentleman in a Victorian-era tweed suit, who appears and quietly enjoys his time sat up at the bar nursing his ghostly Guinness.
5-7 Lord Edward St
Located across the road from Christ Church Cathedral, one of the oldest and spookiest sites in the city, it’s no surprise this pub and restaurant is the home a few ghost. However, it’s the ghost’s identity that might surprise you. This pub was the birthplace of poet James Clarence Mangan. Even in life Mangan was a troubled soul who struggled with his mental health and addiction.
He succumbed to cholera in 1849, but it’s believed that even after death he still wanders the halls of his childhood home. Those who have encountered his spirit report an overwhelming feeling of sadness and sudden, extreme changes in temperature when he is around.
Shout out to SpiritedIsle.ie the ultimate repository of all things spooky on the island of Ireland.
