Hook Peninsula

These imbued in me a love of narrative, of the spoken word and of listening.

Then there was the story of Loftus Hall, a mansion on the Hook Peninsula.

A stranger appeared one night at a party.

The guests, and in particular the owner's daughter Anne, fell under his charms.

and a family that allegedly invited something inside, they couldn't get back out.

On the Hook Peninsula in County Wexford stands Loftus Hall, a sprawling mansion overlooking the Irish Sea.

The building you see today is largely the result of a major 19th century rebuilding, but the haunted legend attached to that property reaches back to an earlier house on the same site, Redmond Hall and the Tossendam family who were living there in the 18th century.

The story is usually placed around 1766, and to be clear, what I am about to tell you is legend.

Still, the story has survived for more than 250 years, and there's a reason people keep telling it.

According to the legend, a violent storm hit the coast.

Ships sometimes sought shelter around the Hook Peninsula, and during this particular storm, a mysterious young man arrived at the hull.

The Tottenham family took him in.

The man, we went to Tintagel Abbey.

Hook Peninsula is the, one of the finest pieces of Ireland.

We went into the-

[laughs]