The Phantom Horseman of Loughareema

Loughareema, the Vanishing Lough, lies not far from Ballycastle at the north-east tip of Ireland and has a double reputation. It’s first quirky characteristic is that it really is a vanishing lake. When there’s enough local rainfall the shallow indentation really does become a lake, but during dry weather it literally vanishes, something quite uncommon for Ireland.

The Lough’s other claim to fame is the reported sightings of a phantom horse, carriage and rider in the area, and local history seems to suggest that there might be some basis of truth to the story.

The road to Ballycastle runs right through the lake, though the modern road sits high enough to avoid flooding, unlike the original. The Lough is quite isolated, surrounded by barren hills where sheep wonder at will. In former days the route was frequently under water, sometimes for weeks on end.

Towards the end of the 1800s a certain Colonel John Magee McNeille wanted to get to Ballycastle after having spent a few days with his cousin, Captain Daniel McNeill. Anxious to catch the 3 pm train from the town, McNeille persuaded a coachman (another McNeill) to drive him in a covered wagon pulled by two horses, even though he was well aware that the road was said to be impassable.

The road disappeared into the waters of the flooded Lough as McNeille neared it, but he coaxed the coachman to try to pass. Half way across the horses began to get nervous as the freezing cold water reached their bellies. At first they cooperated, but soon fright overtook them. Impatient to get to the station McNeille took the whip to one of the beasts and it responded by rearing up on its back legs and turned to the side slipping off the road into the deeper waters at the side. The other horse had no choice but to follow, and the carriage too soon ended up submerged into the deep water.

McNeille struck out for where he knew the higher land of the road to be, but weighed down by his heavy winter clothes, and with the struggling horses flailing wildly about between him and safety, the Colonel soon succumbed to the treacherous, cold waters and was buried a few days later not far away in Ramoan Churchyard.

Ever since that fateful day many people have reported seeing a phantom carriage pulled by two horses and ridden by a military man on the lonely shores of Loughareema. The place is now as lonely as ever it was, the waters of the Lough still appear and disappear according to the weather, but the road has been raised about the maximum flood level, and just in case, a stone wall has been erected on each side of the road as it approaches the Lough so that no-one can ever meet the same watery end as Colonel McNeille did on the afternoon of 30 September 1898.