I’m standing in a chilly and dank, pitch-black tunnel which used to house some of Ireland’s most dangerous convicts. I literally can’t even see my hand in front of my face.

It’s the sort of hell on earth that would very quickly drive a man incarcerated here, stuck in solitude with only his mind for company, to take leave of his senses. A chill goes down my spine.

Men were locked up here, shielded from daylight, for 23 or more hours a day; just them, a cold cell, and a latrine for company. Their food was forced through a hatch by a hand with an unseen face.

Many men must have gone insane or died here, all those years ago. Perhaps their ghosts remain, eternally forced to walk the confined space where they lived their final hours. Wait, was that a shape I saw out of the corner of my eye...

Suddenly, a light flickers on and I am jolted back to reality.

It sounds like the setting for a nightmare, but I’m on the first of this year’s Spike Island After Dark tours, surrounded by more than 20 fellow trippers, keen to relish this insight into Ireland’s dark past in the witching hours.

Timed to coincide with the onset of Samhain, these spooky tours have been running annually since 2023 on the island off the coast of Cobh.

It’s the ideal partnership: Take the regular award-winning Spike Island daytime tour, add a night-time element, scatter a few skeletons in........

© Evening Echo