Lissan House near Cookstown was home to the Staples family from around 1620 until 2006, the longest single-family occupation of a house in Ireland according to Spirited Isle. The house as it stands was largely built around 1690. After the last family owner died in 2006 it passed to a charitable trust and was restored.
Spirited Isle says she referred in a book to her knowledge that the property was haunted and is said to have had several encounters herself. Her mother, hearing the spirits pace up and down the empty landing, would throw a shoe to drive them off. Witnesses have seen small children in the house, and volunteers have chased after them thinking they were real and in places they should not be. One custodian disliked Lady Staples' bedroom, which always felt cooler than other rooms, though the temperature rose again in the dressing room.
Haunted Britain adds cold spots, the heavy footsteps of an invisible man plodding through the house at night, the aroma of rose petals and lavender hanging in the air, and a crying child heard by several people. On one occasion a guest on the first-floor landing found a group of children playing a game and called to them. They ignored her, skipped down the hall and disappeared, when no children were in the house.
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