Fairy Paths

All around the world ancient paths cut across the landscape, some associated with local folktales and others nearly forgotten by the modern world. They are not roads in the sense of merely being a connection between two places - they form a spiritual geography that links us to our ancestors and the Otherworld.

In the UK and Europe they are known as ‘church paths’, routes used to convey the dead to burial in centuries past. Many also have faerie associations – the roads connect fairy forts and are marked en route by fairy thorns. Mortals foolish enough to build a house in the way would find no rest until the house was either demolished or the doors left open at night to allow the faeries free passage.
Paul Devereux’s book makes fascinating reading and forms a practical guide for people wanting to travel these roads themselves. There are OS map references and directions for most sites in the UK and Ireland, though some are accessible by foot only. For the armchair traveler there are black and white illustrations to give  a glimpse of these Otherworldly routes.