A lost ghost story by Bram Stoker, titled Gibbet Hill, has been unearthed in a Dublin archive after 130 years. Discovered by historian Brian Cleary, the tale reveals elements reminiscent of Dracula and highlights Stoker’s early literary development.
A short story by Bram Stoker, the legendary author of Dracula, has been rediscovered in Dublin by a lifelong enthusiast who stumbled upon the work while browsing a library archive. Titled Gibbet Hill, the story was uncovered by Brian Cleary in a Christmas supplement of the Dublin edition of the Daily Mail newspaper from 1890. The work had remained undocumented for over 130 years.
This rare find, which has never been listed in any Stoker bibliography or biography, is now being presented to the public for the first time at an exhibition in the Irish capital. Dracula, the Gothic, mysterious, and supernatural vampire novel published in 1897, may be set in Transylvania and England, but its author, Stoker, was a Dubliner. "I read Dracula as a child, and it stayed with me. I devoured everything by and about Stoker that I could find," said Cleary, 44, a writer and amateur historian who lives in Dublin’s Marino neighborhood, where Stoker grew up.
Thanks to Dracula, Stoker "had a massive impact on popular culture, but he remains underappreciated," Cleary told AFP at the Casino at Marino, an 18th-century building near Stoker’s birthplace that is hosting the exhibition.
Cleary’s journey of discovery began in 2021, following a sudden onset of deafness that changed his life. While on leave to retrain his hearing after cochlear implant surgery, Cleary visited the National Library of Ireland to indulge his passion for historical literature and Stoker's works. In October 2023, Cleary came across Gibbet Hill, a literary treasure previously unknown to him. "I sat in the library, flabbergasted that I might be looking at a lost ghost story by Stoker—especially one from around the time he was working on Dracula," Cleary said. "I found myself wondering, am I the only living person who has read this? And then, what on earth should I do with it?"
Cleary conducted extensive literary research to verify his discovery and consulted Stoker expert and biographer Paul Murray, who confirmed that the story was unknown and had remained buried in the archives for over 130 years.
"Gibbet Hill is very significant in terms of Stoker’s development as a writer. 1890 was when he was a young author and began making notes for Dracula," Murray told AFP. "It’s a classic Stoker story—a struggle between good and evil, with evil emerging in exotic and unexplained ways. It’s a stepping stone on his path to publishing Dracula."
The macabre tale revolves around a sailor who is murdered by three criminals. Their bodies are strung up on a gibbet, or hanging gallows, on a hill as a ghostly warning to passing travelers.
To celebrate the discovery, Gibbet Hill has been published in a new book featuring cover art and illustrations inspired by the story, created by respected Irish artist Paul McKinley.
“It feels surreal to stand next to a painting inspired by three of the characters from the story,” Cleary said.
“When Brian sent me Gibbet Hill, there was so much to work with,” McKinley added. His eerie, sometimes sinister illustrations include a “juicy, wet, oily painting” of worms, inspired by a young character in the story holding a bunch of earthworms in his hands.
“Creating new images for an old story that has been buried for so long was a fascinating challenge,” McKinley said.
With AFP
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