Haunted Malahide

Well, supposedly haunted only by squirrels, rabbits and headless ghosts. 

For those who do not enjoy ghost-hunting, there are less spooky tourism adds (no, the castle does not swim in reality):

Ehm, let me start properly. Malahide is, sort of, part of Dublin, yet it looks nothing like it - it is a small, poetic village on the sea side, with a haunted castle, romantic gardens, stark shore and cute houses. 

The castle is rather small: 

Juuust kidding. Still, it's small.

  

Frankly, there's something innately disturbing, haunting and eerie about Ireland in general. It's crude, wild, dark and gothic. If I was still a teenager, I would have been beyond myself with happiness. However, right now, I'm just confused. I know that if I was my old self, I would be enjoying the atmosphere very much, but my current self is just scared most of the time. The moment I have to leave the busy road for smaller streets to get home, I almost run, and I'm not very sure if I'm running away from imaginary murderers or ghosts. Everything here is creepy. All of the older houses have large, wild front yards and very little illumination. Wherever you go, it looks like you're passing one haunted house after another. There are no people. Once I was walking in a street in Terenure, checking the dark gardens for potential rapists, when I saw a woman standing perfectly still in front of her door. The moment she met my gaze, I shivered. I bet she was waiting for her husband, probably annoyed that he's taking long. To me, though, she looked like a maleficent ghost. 

Malahide looks very serene and beautiful, most of the time.

(Actually, we were supposed to meet Yi's friend who knew "of a secret garden in Malahide". In reality, it was a secret way to enter the Castle gardens. This is his dog.) 

But it has a wild, uneasy side to it. If you walk this slippery path, ending in the sea, you feel as if the seaweeds are going to grow around your ankles and pull you underwater. 

  

Lovely beach, isn't it? If you give in to the temptation to swim around there, you may never climb back again, as the current is very strong. 

Even if there's sun, the dark clouds are never too far away... 

Yours truly

Vita