HAUNTED HALL’S SECRET HISTORY
A NEW BOOK about Loftus Hall reveals its past owners’ ties to the occult.
Author Helena B. Scott, who lives in County Wexford, released Loftus: The Hall of Dreams in August.
She is a member of the London College of Psychic Studies and of the International Gothic Association. She is also a member of the Irish Writers Union.
Scott released the book which she researched and wrote on Loftus Hall featuring photography by Scotland Yard’s former head of forensic photography, Steve Meyler.
She said: ‘The book conveys a new story about Loftus Hall, although it is in no way fiction. It is a historical revision of Loftus Hall’s story, going beyond the cliché ghost tale recycled over the centuries by the locals. However, it is narrated by one of the characters and written as a classic gothic story, so it reads like fiction although no part of the story was made up, including the research uncovering new information about the family and its unknown ties to the occult, local history of the demesne itself and relevant archaeology findings and on the paranormal phenomena I encountered in the hall. It is quite a new concept and the book, which is very large, is a beautiful work of art with an embossed cover with the family’s coat of arms, silver foil-stamping, silk paper.’
Given the resurgence of interest in stories about haunted homes of late, Scott feel that readers and appreciators of these stories are ready for a fresh kind of haunted tale which is all the more frightening, given that it is a true story and not the tale we were told for hundreds of years.
‘The Irish Writers Union has given it a lovely review already and I want the larger gothic and literary communities to see a new perspective on one of Ireland’s most haunted sites.’
The book itself is very very large and weighs over six pounds and is on limited release.