Close to the medieval heart of Carlingford stands a tall, grey tower overlooking the harbour — Taaffe’s Castle.

Built in the early 1500s, this four-storey fortified townhouse was once owned by the Taaffe family, wealthy Anglo-Irish merchants who prospered through trade along Ireland’s east coast. In those days, Carlingford was a thriving port. Narrow cobbled lanes bustled with the creak of cart wheels and the smell of salt and fish from the docks. The lower floors of Taaffe’s Castle served as storerooms for imported goods — barrels of wine, salt, and other luxuries — while the upper chambers provided comfortable living quarters for the merchant family. From its turreted corner, the Taaffes could watch their ships sail in and out of the harbour below.

As the centuries passed, Carlingford’s fortunes declined. By the 1700s, travellers described the once-busy port as a ruin, and Taaffe’s Castle, too, fell silent.

Today, the structure endures as part of a popular local pub, where visitors can quite literally drink in its history beneath the same vaulted ceilings that once echoed with the sounds of trade and laughter. Yet many who have sat within its storied chambers have spoken of something else — a ghostly presence that refuses to leave.

Local lore insists that Taaffe’s Castle is haunted, though opinions differ on who — or what — walks its halls.

One version names Nicholas Taaffe, the second Earl of Carlingford, who fought for King James II during the Williamite Wars and was killed at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690. Some believe his spirit returned home to the family’s ancestral seat.

A more romantic legend tells a different tale — that of Eimear, a young servant girl who fell in love with Nicholas before he left for war. Defying the gulf between noble and commoner, the two were said to have become secretly engaged. When news reached Carlingford that Nicholas had been slain — run through the heart and beheaded — tragedy struck again. Servants found Eimear dead in her chamber, her heart pierced and her head severed in the same grim fashion as her lover’s. No weapon was found, and no one ever saw the killer.

Terrified, the household sealed the room and fled. From that day onward, locals whispered of a headless woman in white drifting silently through the castle at night. Some say she roams the upper floors still, waiting for her lost love to return. Others claim it is Nicholas himself who haunts the place, searching for her.

The story of Eimear’s doomed love is pure folklore — but it has endured for generations. Nicholas Taaffe was indeed a real historical figure who died at the Boyne, yet records show he had been married for decades before his death, and there is no evidence that he ever lived at Taaffe’s Castle. Nor is there any trace of a servant girl named Eimear or a mysterious death within the building.

Still, the legend persists. The Headless Ghost of Taaffe’s Castle remains one of Carlingford’s most enduring tales, retold on ghost walks, in local newspapers, and by the fireside for centuries.

Even today, patrons sometimes speak of cold gusts of air sweeping suddenly through the old stone chambers, or of a pale figure glimpsed in an upstairs window long after closing time.
Whether born of history or imagination, the spirits of Taaffe’s Castle ensure that this medieval tower will never truly fall silent.