Boat House Ghost

Boat House Ghost

The first sighting of the ‘boat house ghost’ was documented around the turn of the 20th century and appeared in the ‘Belfast Newsletter’, more than 100 years ago.  The original report is that a young woman was drowned in the River Bann and her body was recovered from the river, near the boathouse, at the bottom of Foundry Street in Edenderry some time later.

There was reported sightings of her ‘floating’ over the river and disappearing into the boathouse after midnight every night.  These were accompanied by reports of tapping on residents windows and thumping on their doors all of which drove them to despair.  The apparition could not only appear suddenly but also possessed poltergeist abilities, as it had the ability to be violent.

Local residents of Foundry Street, Edenderry reported weeks of spooky goings on.  They became desperate and considered relocating en masse to another part of the town.  However two men thought they had the answer and armed themselves with a Martin-Henry rifle, a type widely used in the 19th and 20th century.  They vowed to give her “as much as would keep her from the locality for a fortnight”.  At the next reported sighting of the spectre the two heroes immediately took the gun to the place where it was seen and found her still there.  The man with the gun raised it to his shoulder, aimed for the spirit and fired.  Certain that the target had been hit the two men rushed to the spot where they has seen it only to find nothing there.

The mens exploits did nothing to allay the fears of the residents, in fact quite the opposite as it made them more afraid.  However the brave men with the gun promised to protect them, vowing that they would seek revenge if they ever saw the ghost again; they never did.


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