Though the old mill on Green Mill Lane has long since vanished, its name lingers in the town – and so too does a story of something far darker.

Local folklore tells of a headless horseman seen on the roads around the mill site and along the Ridge Road. In one version of the tale, he was once a coach driver, travelling too fast beneath a low bridge. Failing to duck, he was decapitated in an instant. Now his phantom is said to ride still, horse and carriage thundering through the night, the driver’s body upright but with no head upon his shoulders.

Like many Irish tales of the Dullahan, the headless rider is an omen of death – a figure best avoided. In Portlaoise, the spectre is less often described as a messenger of doom and more as a restless presence, tied to the memory of the vanished mill and the dark roads that surround it.

The exact details are hazy, the story passed on by word of mouth. But to this day, Green Mill Lane is remembered not just as a name on a map, but as the haunt of a coachman who rode once too tall.