Wallace House 250: Irish & Scottish Spooky Tales

Name: Wallace House 250: Irish & Scottish Spooky Tales
Start: 2025-10-18T15:00:00-04:00
Location: Wallace House & Old Dutch Parsonage State Historic Sites

Schedule

Sat, 18 Oct, 2025 at 03:00 pm

UTC-04:00

Location

Wallace House & Old Dutch Parsonage State Historic Sites | Somerville, NJ

Did you know the Celts invented Halloween? Long before Christianity reached Scotland and Ireland’s misty shores, Celts celebrated the 31st of October as the eve of Samhain, a time when the boundaries of our world and the 'Otherworld' are at their thinnest and all manner of spirits, spectres, fairies and fell creatures are free to roam the mortal realm.
Join storyteller David MacCaffrey, the "Shannachie of Glenndunbun Ballybegg," as he tells traditional and modern Celtic tales of terror. Drawing on the ancient folkways and legends of the people who practically invented horror his stories present a macabre menagerie of ghosts and ghouls, devils and demons, banshees and beasties and things that go bump in the night.
David Emerson of History on the Hoof portrays David MacCaffrey, the Shannachie of Glenndunbun Ballybegg.
Please bring your own lawn chairs or blankets for this outdoors program on an autumnal afternoon on the grounds of the Wallace House.
This program is part of a series made possible by the Wallace House and Old Dutch Parsonage Association, Proud Partner of Revolution NJ, with the sponsorship of the New Jersey Council for the Humanities, state partner of the National Endowment for the Humanities. #njhumanities
Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this series do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities or the New Jersey Council for the Humanities.
John Wallace was born in Drumelzier, a parish in the Scottish Lowlands associated with the legend of Merlin and the Celtic tradition of Beltane, the springtime counterpart to the autumnal celebration of Samhain.
250 years after Scottish emigrant and Philadelphia merchant John Wallace built the Wallace House at “Hope Farm,” the Wallace House is under construction again as part of Down the Brook: Revitalization of Wallace House & Old Dutch Parsonage State Historic Sites for Revolution NJ. The historic rehabilitation of Wallace House is being supported in part by a Semiquincentennial Grant from the Historic Preservation Fund administered by the National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior.
⭐ Revolution NJ is New Jersey’s official observance of the 250th anniversaries of New Jersey’s first Constitution July 2, 2026 and the American Revolution in New Jersey from 2024 – 2033.