Galgorm Castle, near Ballymena, is a Jacobean manor house dating from 1618. It was built by Sir Faithful Fortescue. According to local tradition the chapel was burned by hostile locals, and about a hundred years later the castle was bought by a man called Doctor Colville, about whom little is documented. His sudden wealth made people suspicious, and many came to believe he had made a pact with the Devil.
In the legend he was obsessed with wealth and summoned the Devil by the River Maine, offering his soul in return for enough gold to fill a boot in his attic. Colville was cunning. He cut a hole in the sole of the boot, nailed it to the floor over a hidden space, and so the Devil's servants had to keep coming back with bag after bag of gold. In the end the Devil claimed his soul. His spirit is said to walk the halls and grounds, his footsteps beating through the night, and a ghostly light flickers in the park as he searches for his lost treasure. Servants in ghostly form have been seen carrying on their duties.
A final thread says a portrait of Colville hung in the castle and that anyone who removes it will bring misfortune on themselves.
This is a variant of the widely found tale of a man who cheats the Devil with a bottomless container.
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