Youghal's Dark Past - The Lighthouse Keeper

The Lighthouse you see today is the third lighthouse on that spot. The first lighthouse was built to warn ships about the rocks around the lighthouse , and to show ships how to get in to Youghal. Anyway, in medieval times they wanted reliable people who would keep the light lighting. They asked the nuns in the convent to be the first lighthouse keepers for Youghal and the nuns did that for many years until a new Lighthouse was needed and a Lighthouse keeper was appointed. His name was Thomas Murphy. He moved into the house by the Lighthouse and began to do his job. But one night, it was the night of a full moon, and it was bright and calm but he heard strange noises from the basement of the Lighthouse, scraping noises, like someone trying to get out of a room. Tom tried to ignore the noises but the noises continued. And when he looked out of the top of the Lighthouse he could see what looked like a young woman at the corner, looking out to sea. She was wearing a long dark dress and had something like a bright shawl wrapped around her shoulders. She stood there, staring out to sea and then – right in front of his eyes – she vanished, vanished into thin air as if she wasn’t there. And then the noises stopped downstairs. For the next weeks he heard nothing, saw nothing and then there was another full moon and he saw her again looking out to sea and while she was looking out he could hear noises downstairs and he became very, very afraid. And then she vanished again completely – and this happened every time there was a full moon. He decided he would ask the nuns who worked the old Lighthouse for advice. He knew immediately by the way they looked at each other that they knew something but they would not tell him. One old nun – Sister Maria Immaculata told him: “There is a body in the Lighthouse, under the big flagstone in the kitchen. That body is Moll Goggin – she died of consumption while waiting for her boyfriend to return from sea. She begged us to bury her as near as possible to a spot where she could keep an eye out to sea. We buried her in the Lighthouse under the flagstones in the kitchen. She cannot leave until someone takes her place. She can never REST In PEACE while she is in the Lighthouse. The corner where she used to stand is still called Moll Goggin’s corner to this day. The Lighthouse has been replaced.