Fairy Paths

Fairy path

In the folklore of the Celtic cultures a fairy path, ‘passage’, ‘avenue’ or ‘pass’ is a route taken by these  little beings, usually in a straight line and between sites of traditional significance, such as fairy forts or raths (a class of circular earthwork dating from the Iron Age), “airy” (eerie) mountains and hills, thorn bushes, springs, lakes, rock outcrops, and Stone Age monuments. Ley lines and spirit paths, such as with corpse roads, have some similarities with these fairy paths. A fairy ring is also a path used by fairies, but in a circle, for dancing, as described by poet W.B.Yeats, “…the fairies dance in a place apart, Shaking their milk-white feet in a ring,…”

Fairy paths and dwellings

In Ireland, Brittany and other Celtic lands, there were fairy paths that while being invisible nevertheless had such perceived geographical reality in the minds of the country people that building practices were adapted to ensure they were not obstructed. A significant number of the characteristics of fairy paths are shared in common with ley lines. In Many parts of Britain the round barrows were the traditional homes of the fairies and were avoided by the country folk. Such places were Fairy Toot in Somerset, Elf Howe barrow near Folkton, Yorkshire and a round barrow at Beedon in Berkshire. Cornwall was and is a stronghold of fairy lore and they are said to dance on Carn Gluze, near St Just in Penwith.

Feng shui

There are similarities between fairy paths and the beliefs underpinning Chinese feng shui landscape divination, in which homes and ancestral tombs had to be protected from straight roads or other linear landscape features, because troublesome spirits traveled along them and would bring bad luck. The goal of feng shui as practiced today is to situate the human built environment on spots with good chi. The “perfect spot” is a location and an axis in time. Some areas are not suitable for human settlement and should be left in their natural state, being potential or actual anima locus.

An example of this fairy path straightness is provided by an account concerning a croft (now a cattle shed) at Knockeencreen, Brosna, County Kerry. In an interview in the 1980s, the last human occupant told of the troubles his grandfather had experienced there, with his cattle periodically and inexplicably dying. The front door is exactly opposite the back door. The grandfather was informed that the dwelling stands on a fairy path running between two hills. The gypsy advised the grandfather to keep the doors slightly ajar at night to allow the fairies free passage. The advice was heeded and the problem ceased. It so happens that the building is indeed on a straight line drawn between two local hilltops, and is, moreover, at one end of a long, straight track

A traditional folk tale from the Southern Shore of Newfoundland, Canada, concerns a young married couple who discovered that they had built their house on a path used by the good people, and the steps that couple take to rid themselves of fairy mischief. It seems therefore that the fairy folk had emigrated together with their human counterparts or had been in Canada from time immemorial

Home-owners have knocked corners from houses because the corner blocked the fairy path, and cottages have been built with the front and back doors in line, so that the owners could, in need, leave them both open and let the fairies troop through all night

It was believed that a house built on a fairy path would suffer from midnight noises or supernatural manifestations. Ill-luck in the form of sick farm animals or personal illness could be the result and one remedy was to build small fires in several places along the fairy path, using fire from the blessed fire of Saint John’s Eve that was lit every year at sunset on 23 June.

If you are Peter Pan, you don’t need to worry about blocking a fairy path in Neverland. In the novel Peter and Wendy, the version of James Barrie’s famous Peter Pan stories that was published in 1911, after Peter Pan and the lost boys built a house for Wendy on Neverland, he stays up late that night to guard her from the pirates, but then the story says: “After a time he fell asleep, and some unsteady fairies had to climb over him on their way home. Any of the other boys obstructing the fairy path at night they would have mischiefed, but they just tweaked Peter’s nose and passed on.”

Detecting fairy paths and overcoming their influence

Some builders used to use a technique to see if the planned construction was going to be on a fairy path; they would map out the floor plan in the earth and place a pile of stones at each corner and leave it overnight, if the stones were undisturbed it was safe to build, otherwise the work would not continue. There is another theme that states if one’s house is on a fairy path, one must leave the doors and windows open at night, front and back, to allow fairies to pass through. Builders were also advised against using white quartz in their stonework, as it is said to be a fairy stone.

Walking along fairy paths

Paths that the fairies travel along are usually stated as being best avoided, however they also had certain benefits to humans, such as with ‘trods’ in the West of England. These are a straight-line fairy path in the grass of a field with a different shade of green to the rest. People with rheumatism sought relief by walking along these tracks, though animals avoid them. Fairy rings have certain elements in common with this phenomenon and were seen as ‘gateways’ into the realm of supernatural beings.

Underwater fairy paths

Irish fairy paths also exist under water, reminiscent of causeways in marshes at sacred sites and those to crannogs and other islands. These paths, only used by the fairy folk, ran from one island to another and were paved with coral, making them and their travelers visible to fishermen in their boats above.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia