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Springhill House, near Moneymore, County Londonderry, Northern Ireland · Family tragedy in 1816; later haunting traditions and a recorded interview in March 2002
At Springhill, a tall woman in dark clothes is said to pass through the house or stand on the stairs. The tradition calls her Olivia Lenox-Conyngham and connects her with a family tragedy in 1816. A Ghost Club interview in 2002 gives the story a more recent human setting, while the house’s surviving rooms and collections reveal the family world around it.
A house built to last
The National Trust places Springhill’s construction in the 1690s, following William ‘Good Will’ Conyngham’s marriage to Anne Upton. The house became home to successive generations of the Conyngham and Lenox-Conyngham families.
Its history includes Plantation settlement, military service, estate management and later financial pressure. During the Second World War it accommodated American troops.
The family’s last resident, writer Mina Lenox-Conyngham, remained after the transfer to the National Trust in 1957 and died in 1961.
These dates give the haunting a real household setting. Olivia is one figure in a family history spanning several centuries, rather than the only person associated with a supposedly empty haunted mansion.
The tragedy associated with Olivia
The familiar story identifies Olivia as the wife of George Lenox-Conyngham, who died in 1816. Spirited Isle’s retelling connects his distress with illness in the family and difficulties arising from military service.
In that version Olivia tries to reach him during the final crisis. Later tradition imagines her continuing to move towards the room where she could not prevent his death.
Other descriptions present her more quietly, walking through the house, standing on the stairs or taking an interest in children. The calm figure and the repeated desperate journey are different forms of the tradition.
The family tragedy is treated here with restraint. The case’s interest lies in the story people attached to the house and the experiences they later described, rather than in adding dramatic detail to a death.
The Ghost Club interview of 2002
Bob Menary’s article in the Ghost Club’s autumn 2002 newsletter records an interview with a curator on 4 March. She requested anonymity and appears as Mrs X.
She described an apparent touch on the landing while going to her unwell daughter. Her husband reported seeing the same dark-haired woman in black on three occasions, including near a telephone and on the stairs.
The article also records footsteps approaching an office door, with nobody found when it opened. Menary keeps those reports distinct from the woman’s own statement that she had never seen Olivia.
His personal connection came through an earlier curator, Butler, whom he had known while his father repaired furniture at the house. Menary acknowledged that some of Butler’s stories were told to frighten him.
This dated interview is a valuable route into the modern tradition. The family’s requested anonymity should be preserved rather than replaced with guessed identities.
A staircase that survives the family’s lifetime
The National Trust’s room guide describes an early staircase with oak treads and yew balusters, a surviving feature from the late seventeenth-century house.
That material continuity helps explain the power of a staircase story. It is a place where residents, servants, later caretakers and visitors have repeatedly moved between floors.
The same guide describes the Gun Room’s changing function. It was probably an early drawing room, later panelled for a different use. During maintenance in 1960, eighteenth-century wallpaper was rediscovered behind the panelling.
The building therefore contains visible layers of family occupation. A room name used in a recent account may be much younger than the space itself.
The people behind the portraits
National Trust Collections describes a house of whitewashed walls, long sash windows, older oak-panelled rooms and later reception spaces.
Its collection ranges from family portraits and a medicine chest to an early teddy bear in the nursery. The library reaches back to the seventeenth century, and the costume collection preserves another kind of family and social memory.
Those details make the house more than a backdrop for an apparition. The occupants read, dressed, raised children, managed illness and kept possessions that later generations inherited.
The nursery connection in Olivia’s tradition is particularly affecting in that setting. It brings the reported presence close to ordinary family concerns rather than presenting it solely as a source of fear.
A welcoming presence in later tradition
Spirited Isle describes Olivia as a generally gentle figure associated with children. Its account also preserves a guest’s report of an apparent doorway that was not present in the wall the next morning.
That is a different narrative form from the 2002 curator interview. One is a traditional bedroom episode; the other identifies the date on which a researcher spoke with a current resident.
The contrast is useful because Springhill has acquired a reputation through both inherited stories and more recent experiences. They contribute to the same place’s history without becoming one continuous witness account.
The National Trust’s own main property description recognises the ghost tradition alongside the portraits, furniture and costume collection. The story forms part of the house’s public identity.
How to follow the source trail
The strongest starting point for the later reports is Menary’s named article and its dated interview. It tells readers who asked the questions and why the witnesses’ names were withheld.
The Trust’s history and collections catalogue provide another route, through the building and family objects. Neither should be treated as a substitute for a full published first-person diary of every reported encounter.
This file brings those routes together while leaving their roles visible. A room description explains the setting; a curator’s statement records an experience; a traditional retelling connects the figure with Olivia.
The lead photograph shows the actual Springhill House near Moneymore, and the map uses that location rather than another Springhill elsewhere in the UK.
Related Northern Irish cases
Ballygally Castle follows another female haunting tradition attached to a surviving historic building. Derrygonnelly preserves a very different nineteenth-century household investigation.
At Springhill, the lasting impression is often one of continuity rather than confrontation: a woman passing through familiar rooms, later residents carrying on their lives, and a house still holding the possessions and memories of the family who made it.
Timeline
1690s: construction date identified by the National Trust.
1816: George Lenox-Conyngham’s death becomes the background to Olivia’s tradition.
Second World War: American troops occupy the house.
1957: transfer to the National Trust.
1961: Mina, the last family resident, dies.
4 March 2002: Menary’s curator interview.
Autumn 2002: the Ghost Club publishes Olivia.
Sources & further reading
Bob Menary, Olivia, Ghost Club newsletter, autumn 2002 — Dated interview and clearly attributed later experiences; witness anonymity retained.
National Trust: History of Springhill — Building, family chronology, wartime occupation and later custody.
National Trust: the rooms at Springhill — Staircase, changing room uses and rediscovered wallpaper.
National Trust Collections: Springhill — The historic house and its family collections.
Spirited Isle: Springhill House — Later retelling of the family and haunting traditions.
National Trust: Springhill — The property’s current public identity and visitor information.
UKPX historical case file. Researched and checked 4 November 2026. The marker identifies the National Trust’s Springhill House near Moneymore, Northern Ireland. It is not one of the many other places named Springhill.
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