An Irish man who moved into a new studio got more than he bargained for in the lease when he discovered a strange floor hatch hiding spine-chilling secrets.
The man rented a studio in an old English monastery conversion that dates back from the 19th century and now has over 30 apartments.
“I have a tiny room on the ground floor. I got a great deal on the rent,” the tenant said.
He signed the lease in a heartbeat. Little did he know what he was about to uncover.
Completely unsuspecting of what he was getting himself into, he started checking out his new living space bit by bit and set up his most valuable possessions.
“The studio is a mezzanine, it’s more of a bunk bed than a bedroom,” the tenant explained.
With a snug bed, a perfectly functional shower room, high ceilings and plenty of space in the kitchen/living room area, the studio seemed like good value for money.
“I didn’t realize how much value I got until I moved in and found an area worthy of any movie-grade exploration,” the tenant said.
The floor was squeaky and appeared weak in the hallway, right in front of the shower room. The tenant wanted to put some construction adhesive into the gaps in order to stop the squeaks.
But when he looked closer, he noticed a handle. That’s when he realized there was a secret door in his floor.
The landlord didn’t mention anything about this and the floor hatch was left out of the lease.
When he finally decided to open the hatch, the tenant tried to keep his expectations in check.
After all, if it had been such a big deal, the landlord would have said something about it.
When he looked inside, he found a bunch of old tools, paint cans and dirty cloths.
He thought to himself: “Of course there couldn’t be a secret dungeon complex under my bog-standard studio I rented for small money. That only happens in poorly-written movies.”
Or does it?
He looked a little closer, and stumbled upon a hair-rising finding.
The seemingly underwhelming storage compartment in the floor was definitely more than meets the eye.
He noticed an eerie staircase leading down to a hidden basement dungeon.
“At this point I couldn’t believe my luck, and was completely freaked out since it was so unexpected,” the man said.
Too scared to explore the dungeon on his own, he asked one of his friends to come by and closed the hatch while he waited.
“I suspected the dungeon stretched beneath the entire building, so I sealed the hatch with the bathroom door wedged over it and awaited backup,” the tenant said.
When the friend arrived, they both ventured down the stairs, equipped with flashlights and a camera to document their findings.
They uncovered a maze of narrow 19th century corridors stretching beneath the entire building.
They kept peering through all the hatches.
A stench of earthy decay wafted out from the passageways.
Stones came clattering through the cavernous openings and the ground was filled with rubble.
A thick cloud of rock dust rose with every step.
“There could be a hidden space upstairs between apartments, or else an illusion caused by a collapsing ceiling,” the tenant explained.
Judging by the black mold growing across the walls and shattered wood, the corridors seemed to have been abandoned decades ago.
This was the last opening in the walls. With a sense of foreboding, they stepped inside.
They found an enormous chamber. The writings on the walls suggested someone had been there within the past few years.
At first, it looked like a regular basement. But when they looked closer, chills crawled up their spines.
The wall on the right appeared to have been bricked up.
They moved into the corner to see a ghastly shape. At first, it looked like a bed. But why would anyone put a bed made of stone in a damp, pitch-black dungeon?
Bearing in mind that the building used to be a monastery, the odd shape in the corner could actually be a tomb.
“Bed, or crypt, it’ll make a good seat for a potential home cinema, or else for a dungeon party,” the tenant said jokingly.
But there is more.
The tenant and his friend also found some strange furnishings that looked a lot like the remains of a sacrificial altar – a structure upon which sacrificial offerings are made for religious purposes.
In the middle of the chamber, they came across a hole with very soft dirt in it.
According to the tenant, the dirt seemed to have been “recently disturbed” and the hole might have played a part in cult sacrifice rituals.
The tenant’s studio is the only apartment in the building with access to the abandoned dungeon.
He said he wanted to continue exploring the passageways and admitted to being scared of living alone right above the cavernous corridors.
“Mine appears to be the only staircase to the dungeon. I’m debating my next move. More exploration needs to be done, but it’s very scary living above it alone,” the man admitted.