The Gentle Ghost

A Cavan Ghost Story

There is a derelict house a few miles from Dowra, in Co. Cavan, in which it is said, the ghostly figure of an old man smoking a pipe has been seen several times.

When the house - not a large one - was occupied, the owner used to cater for paying guests who visited the district for fishing, shooting, etc. A man who once stayed in the house still tells of an eerie experience he had there.

He arrived from Dublin at a time when the guest house was booked out, but the owner made a bed for him an a sofa in the kitchen.

He slept for a couple of hours but then wake up. He switched an a torch he had brought with him to look at his watch and was surprised to see an old man smoking a pipe in front of the fire, and seated in a low, wooden armchair.

Main Street in Dowra, Co. Cavan in the early part of the 20th Century.

Next morning the Dublin visitor bald the wife of the owner of his strange experience.

"Please don't mention it to anyone here, " she said. "The old man was the first occupier of this house many years ago. He came here with his young bride, but after same months she ran off with another man. The heartbroken husband always believed she would come back. For years he sat in front of the fire always expecting to hear her knock on the door. But it never happened. He was over 80 when they found him dead in front of the fire one morning.

"Some people see him there, but not everyone, and he always disappears when spoken to. There is no harm in him. He was, I believe, a gentle old man."

Dowra is the first village on the River Shannon which rises from the Cuilcagh mountains just 6 miles from Dowra at the Shannon Pot. Dowra village is on the borders of Cavan and Leitrim where the province of Ulster meets the province of Connacht. The village only developed in the late 19th century when a road diversion led to the decline of the nearby village of Tober two miles to the north.

Nothing survives now at Tober except one or two houses but its history was colourful. It was the site of a pilgrimage, until this was suppressed by the church because of drunkenness and unseemly behavior. Then, in the early 1860s, the village was engulfed by a landslide.

The Catholic church at Doobally, three miles north of Dowra, has a large iron pot used to distribute gruel during the Great Famine. The pot comes from Tober.

Dowra is a beautiful little village, which has the advantage of being in two counties, both Cavan & Leitrim and therefore is a central location for people who wish to enjoy the beauty of both Counties.

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