Richhill Castle is a Dutch-style 17th-century house in the village of Richhill, between Armagh and Portadown. It is privately owned and only occasionally open for tours. Unlike many haunted houses, local people think they know who haunts it. She is Dorothea Monroe, known as Dolly.
She was born in County Down in the 1750s, raised by an influential aunt in Dublin, painted by Sir Joshua Reynolds and hailed in the papers as Ireland's greatest beauty. In 1775 she married William Richardson of Richhill Castle and left the capital for rural Armagh. She died in 1793 in her thirties, with tuberculosis suggested as the cause.
Generations have reported footsteps in empty rooms, slamming doors and a mocking laugh. A sensitive once described a girl in white socks standing at a window. Paranormal groups who investigated the so-called death room reported misty halos on camera, drained batteries and bursts of cold air, and visitors have described a hand on the shoulder in an upstairs corridor and the swish of skirts on the stairs. Villagers have seen pale lights in windows when the house was empty. Spooky Isles says the current owner has not himself seen an apparition but that a family member stopped on the staircase to talk to a ghost they were sure was Dolly Monroe.
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