O'Briens Farm takes guests on spooky hike filled with fairies, ghosts and banshees

When the sun sets, and the world goes quiet, who knows what you can encounter in the woods?At O’Brien’s farm in St. John’s, it could be a fairy, a banshee – or a ghost. 

From Oct. 25 to 30, Double Sure theatre is taking guests on storytelling nighttime hikes to tell tales rooted in history and Irish folklore, in partnership with the O’Brien Farm foundation.

The farm was first settled in the 1800’s by the O’Brien family, and continues today as a working farm. Throughout the years, the O’Brien family maintained their connection to Irish culture through storytelling and folklore. 

Double Sure Theatre co-founder Patrick Foran says the stories told at After Dark are “spun out from a piece of either a collected ghost story or something that we know from Irish folklore.”

“And it happens at night around a crackling fire. You're in a small group of strangers in the woods. It's a little chilling. It's a little spooky,” said Foran.

 The After Dark at O’Brien Farm hike started five years ago, said Foran. 

In 2022, Foran said they started commissioning playwrights to flesh out these stories, and create performances with actors. This year, the event features local actors Andrew Tremblett, Brandon Cave, Shelia Guy Murphy, and Marie Jones.

“They've expanded it and given it lots of twists and turns, just like our trail has twists and turns,” said Foran.

The experience begins with a story about the Banshee – a creature being blamed for disappearing children, he said. It then continues into the woods, with an encounter with dark fairies and a Dullahan, “whose intent is to find a soul and bring it to the underworld.”

And one ghost story is inspired by a tale recorded by the O’Briens near the farm, said Foran. It involves a mother who has awoken in strange surroundings and encounters a funeral procession – where all the people have no heads. 

“I think what makes this so special is we're [telling] these ghost stories around campfires – It's an environment that lets your imagination run wild – and I think that's why people keep coming back,” said Foran. 

O’Brien farms general manager, Aaron Rogers, says he sees lots of spooky stuff working on the farm. 

“Sometimes at the end of the night … you're walking through the woods and you see a few flashes here and there,” he said. 

He said while restoring Thimble Cottage, a home on the property built in the 1850s, a mummified cat was found in the walls. Rogers said this was an old Irish tradition meant to keep away demons.