Over several centuries, Renvyle House has been built, pulled down, rebuilt, burned to ashes and rebuilt once again. Its often turbulent history has mirrored the unpredictable changes of the troubled history of Ireland, but its most precious asset has been its resilience, its capacity to survive. A chieftain of one of the oldest and most powerful Gaelic clans in Connacht once lived here. It was also the home of Oliver St. John Gogarty (Buck Mulligan of James Joyce's "Ulysses") and, since becoming a country house hotel in 1883, Renvyle House has played host to many famous people - Augustus John, Lady Gregory, Yeats and Churchill among them. Yeats treated this building as home away from home, and his spirit is believed to still reside here, while several of the rooms are also said to be haunted by the ghosts of children. In the past guests have complained of sensing " someone" in their room, and several ladies have had disturbing encounters with a man, whose reflection they have seen looking over their shoulders as they made up their faces in the mirror.