The Dublin Ghost Bus Tour

K and I one evening took the bus into town to do the Dublin Ghost Tour. I have to admit I was really looking forward to the cheezy bus tour. We scheduled our tour at 7pm so it would be dark for most of the tour. 

The inside of the bus was all decorated for Halloween and you could only sit upstairs. There were curtains on all the windows so you could not see outside. Spooky! There was music and sound effects too! When everyone was boarded we were introduced to our tour guide/actor named Gary Egan (who called himself Vincent Price) who stood in the front telling stories, myths, etc. We started the bus tour around the city and the guide pointed to different sites. We were allowed to open the curtains at certain times and then had to close them again. He told stories about Bram Stoker (author of Dracula). Not many people know that is he from Dublin. Gary told us how the "saved by the bell" expression started. K thought that was pretty neat. They used to tie a string from your finger inside your coffin and it was connected to a bell outside. So if you were buried alive when you woke up you rattled the string and the bell would ring. The watchman at the cemetery would quickly dig you out of the coffin. You were actually, "saved by the bell." 


Our first stop was St. Kevin's Church. There is not much that still stands from this church. It was built in the 13th century. There is also a cemetery here that was used until the 19th century. Gary told some stories of strange things happening here...Do you believe in Ghosts?

The gates into St. Kevin's Church and Cemetery

The gravestones along the walls of the grounds

Entrance into the old Church

The Belltower

Gary then told us about body snatching in the mid 1900's.  This happened at this cemetery and many more around the city. Body snatching is the digging of corpses from the graveyards. The purpose of this was to sell them to the medical schools so the students would have a body to practice on. When I did a little research on body snatching this was also a problem during the same time in the UK and the United States. 

The scary man in the coffin!!

Gary then demonstrated on K how they snatch the body out of the coffin.

Inside windows of the old St. Kevin's Church

After we left St. Kevin's we drove around to see other sights from the bus. There were even some spooky stories about the cemetery at St. Patrick's Cathedral. 

Our next stop was Christ Church's crypt. Remember we saw the outside of Christ Church when we went to the Dublinia Museum in August. We got out of the bus and went into the crypt. It was so dark and it was lit by candle lanterns. Gary told stories about events that happened in the crypt long ago. Its kinda hard to believe all these stories especially since I am skeptical of everything. But while we were in the crypt there was this big BANG. I squeezed K's hand so hard I hurt her. I don't think she will ever let me forget that!

Outside of Christ Church

Going into the Crypt

Lanterns on the steps

The Crypt

After we left the crypt the bus took us back to O'Connell Street where we started from. The tour was a little over 2 hours long. It was a spooky tour and we had many good laughs! Gary really liked K and was his pet the whole tour. He was impressed how brave she was and gave her a copy of the Dracula book as a gift. (I think we will be hiding that book!) 

It was a fun night and when we got home L and T were already asleep. K and I needed to warm up so we made some HOT chocolate!