two years ago we had a man staying upstairs in the main inn. At 11:00 p.m. that night, the last staff member locked the front door and left the premises. During the night the guest was awakened by people running up and down the hallways. He thought it was children playing. When the staff arrived in the morning this male guest, upon leaving, bitterly complained about not having been able to sleep for the noise. He soon discovered that he had been the only guest staying in the inn that night. The front doors had been locked and had not been possible for anyone to have entered the building.”
Some evenings when people stay at the inn, they have reported seeing Judge Mahaffy just standing in the building. He is usually described as wearing a jacket and vest. There are other reports of a child you don’t see, but hear.
Katherine has encountered this child. “One morning I arrived at the pub and heard someone say ‘hi’ to me. The voice belonged to a child. I looked all around, but couldn’t find anyone. This happened twice in one morning.”
Some staff members believe the child sounds like an eight- or 12-year-old.
In the past few years guests taking pictures of the front parlour report capturing orbs of light floating in mid-air. Even the silhouette of a person has appeared in their pictures.
Breeze Mitchell began working at the inn in the early part of October 2006. She is convinced of the existence of the spirits. Her childhood experiences have confirmed this belief. Breeze recalled that childhood. “You have to know what is real. Death is just another plane of existence. When I was younger we lived in a house in which the previous owner had died. I would see these grey images there. As a child I would sleep walk. My mother would watch me talking to someone that she could not see. I have no memory of this.”
Her day at work begins by saying hello to the staff and spirits, including Judge Mahaffy. She still sees these grey images most of the time. Breeze shared some of her experiences at the inn.
“There are three sets of lights in the kitchen. This one morning as I entered the kitchen the sets of lights went off, one by one. In the back of the kitchen the freezer doors will open and slam shut on their own. In January 2007 I was near the back of the kitchen. I looked out the window and caught sight of a woman. She was wearing a large-brimmed hat and wore an old-fashioned dress. She was standing on the outside verandah. Then she disappeared.
“Certain mornings you can often smell the scent of lavender and roses in different areas in the main dining room just off from the central hall.
“One day I had a file disappear in the office. The file reappeared a couple of days later.”
Guests who photograph the interior of the inn frequently capture images of orbs. Some people believe these orbs are actually spirits or the energy of spirits. Sometimes they appear with a pattern inside the orb.
Breeze shared a couple of stories surrounding room 105. “In late October 2006 a lady was booked into room 105. She wanted to see a ghost. That night she couldn’t fall asleep. Then she felt someone patting her back and rubbing it. She drifted off to sleep. When she awoke she realized that she was alone and had as she had wished, encountered a spirit.
“In November 2007 we had a male guest staying in room 105. A couple days later he came up to me at breakfast. He said someone got out of his bed in the middle of the night. He asked me if that was possible? I replied, ‘yes.’ He took some pictures of the room and photographed an orb floating over the bed.”
Most guests who stay on the second floor report an experience of the same paranormal event. Breeze explained, “This one night we had three young boys in room 107 and a couple with a baby in room 105. The other rooms on the floor were occupied by couples. They all reported in the morning that they had heard two gentlemen roaming the halls and going up and down the stairs and slamming the emergency exit door by room 107. The guests could hear them talking about business. This had happened about 2:30 a.m. Every room confirmed this account.”
The interview with Breeze ended with this final statement. “Each part of life is a plane of existence. How you handle one plane is how you transfer to the next plane.”
It would seem that the spirits at Inn at the Falls are still there. And no wonder, since the inn is truly a place of beauty, peace, and quiet, a place set aside from the hustle and bustle of the world. Perhaps it is too good to leave.
Either the activity here has increased, it is more able to be perceived, or it just needed a more empathetic response in order to manifest a little stronger. Whatever the cause, it certainly proves that people in the third dimension are not the only ones who appreciate a good and peaceful inn.
The Donnelly Homestead
~ Lucan ~
After all these years the tragedy that befell the Donnelly family on the night of February 3, 1880, can still be felt. A group of vigilantes burst into their homestead on the Roman Line, near the village of Lucan, and killed the family in cold blood. Was it a case of murder? Why does this story continue to haunt the imagination of so many people? How many lost souls wander the Roman Line?
These questions preoccupied me as my car made the turn onto the Roman Line. Donnelly investigation, here we come. Once on the Roman Line I saw St. Patrick’s Church and my thoughts focused on the surroundings — a community made up of both Irish Catholics and Irish Protestants. Their hatred for one another had not been left back in Ireland. The bickering, the fighting and the bad feelings were very much alive. Lucan, Ontario, like Belfast, Ireland in the 1990s, was a very dangerous place to live in the mid-1800s. I wandered through the graveyard, past old moss-covered monuments with variations of the Celtic cross and found the Donnelly gravestone. The inscription verified that five of the Donnelly family had perished on the same day. A short distance down the Roman Line was the Donnelly Homestead. What had really happened here?
James and Johannah Donnelly arrived in Canada from Ireland with their first child, James Jr., in 1842. James found work in London, Ontario and a second son, William, was born there in 1844. The following year they settled in Biddulph Township near Lucan and built a shanty on lot 18 of the sixth concession. A third son was born in 1847 and Johannah gave birth to four more sons over the next nine years.
On June 25, 1857, a man by the name of Maloney was having a logging bee. It was at this bee that James Donnelly senior got into a fight with Pat Farrell. When the fight ended Pat was dead. A feud started over this incident. James hid out for some time from the law, but eventually served seven years in the Kingston Penitentiary. He was released from prison in 1865. In 1870 the Donnelly family found four large fieldstones and placed them near the shanty to form a foundation for a standard six metres by eight metres (18 feet by 26 feet) squared-log cabin. In 1871 a large frame kitchen was added to the back of the cabin.
William Donnelly built this house on the site of the original house a year after the killings. Robert and his nephew James, son of Michael, are in front. Circa 1901.
The Donnellys were feared by many in the region. By 1875 the Donnelly brothers were behaving like bullies in the streets and in the taverns in both Lucan and in the surrounding district. The Donnellys had many friends, but had at least as many enemies. Ray Fazakas, in his book entitled The Donnelly Album stated, “In all justice it must be stated, said one man who was friendly toward them, they would scarcely stop at anything to resent a real or fancied injury … so disorderly and lawless a state has the place become that it is often impossible to get magistrates to issue, or for constables to execute processes when required.”
