In the mid-20th century, the old Glebe House, or Rectory, near the Dundalk Road in Carlingford, earned a chilling reputation as one of the most haunted houses in Ireland.

For generations, the building had served as the home of the town’s Anglican ministers. By the 1960s, it stood large and isolated, its tall windows staring blankly toward the lough — a lonely silhouette on the edge of town. That was when the ghost stories began.

Residents and visitors alike spoke of two main apparitions. The first was a clergyman in black robes, often seen gliding through the hallway or pausing by the staircase as though still tending his flock. The second was a woman in a red dress — sometimes called the Red Lady, sometimes the White Girl, depending on who told the tale. Witnesses described her as drifting silently through the rooms late at night, her presence marked by a sweet perfume and the soft rustle of silk brushing the walls. One owner even claimed to have seen both figures together — the woman gliding ahead, the sombre priest following a few paces behind, as if bound to her in some unfinished story.

During the 1960s and ’70s, the Rectory attracted the attention of paranormal investigators from across Ireland and beyond. It was even claimed that the well-known researcher Hans Holzer visited to study the reports. Nothing was ever proven, but the accounts were consistent — objects moving on their own, doors slamming without cause, sudden cold spots, and whispered voices echoing through empty rooms.

Locals offered their own explanations. Some believed the haunting was the echo of an old tragedy — perhaps a clergyman who had lost someone dear to him, or a woman wronged and unable to find peace. Others thought the house itself, steeped in centuries of service and sorrow, had somehow absorbed the emotional residue of those who had lived within its walls.

By the early 2000s, the Rectory was demolished, erasing the physical structure but not the legend. Even today, older residents of Carlingford still speak of the Red Lady and the ghostly priest, and of the strange, mournful atmosphere that once hung over that lonely house by the road to Dundalk.