Hugh Marks of Kilkeel told W. J. Fitzpatrick the story of the ghost of the old castle at Greencastle, once one of the most important fortresses in Ireland, guarding the entrance to the Kingdom of Mourne across Carlingford Lough from the matching fort at Carlingford.
As Hugh told it, a strange boat came into Greencastle pier one time and a small man came ashore and walked up to the old castle. He did not come out again. That night at twelve o'clock, and every night after at the same hour, the cattle roared all night and burst their ties trying to get out and nearly went mad. The pots and pans in the house rattled, and an old eight-day clock fell off the wall and never went again. After some time of this he heard the old people say that a council of clergy gathered to lay the ghost. They ordered him banished to the Red Sea for 520 years. The ghost begged them to take off 500 and make it twenty, promising to call again at the end, but they held to 520. Hugh supposed there were about 120 years of the time up by then.
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