Fairy Places
Fairy lore links certain types of places with “the good people.” High places such as hills and mountains have reputations as fairy haunts; in fact some stories speak of fairies living inside of hills. The notion of fairies as elementals sees fairies as connected to their homes, specific rivers and streams, forests and rock outcroppings. The fairies seem to have a preference for some types of trees, for instance the hawthorn tree, whose Irish name, Sceach Gheal, means fairy tree. In some cases one specific tree or even bush holds a strong link to the fae. Natural underground sites such as caves or tunnels are sometimes seen as portals to the world of the fairies. Older man-made sites such as pre-historic burial mounds and standing stone circles may also be the site of fairy activity.
Bogs, as liminal spaces, not quite land nor completely water, hold an obvious hazard to unwary walkers. Irish folk wisdom says the danger lies not only in falling into the bog through inattention, but being lured into it by fairies. The danger is apparently strongest for men; tales tell of a beautiful red-haired fairy woman who lures men out to her house in the middle of a bog. The ghostly lights over bogs and marshes known as foxfire is explained by scientists as spontaneous lighting of gases emerging from the water. However, folklore calls these lights will-o-the-wisps which may be held by fairies to fool travelers.
Certain specific sites have historically been intertwined with fairy lore. Visitors to Isle of Skye, the largest island of the Hebrides chain off the west coast of Scotland, can view an old silk piece of cloth known as the Faery Flag at Dunvagen Castle, home for eight centuries to the Clan MacLeod. According to tradition, an early chief of this clan married a fairy woman with the understanding the union would last only 20 years. When the term of the marriage expired, the couple said goodbye on the Fairy Bridge, 3 miles from the castle, where the fairy woman gave the flag to her husband telling him the clan could wave it in times of danger and the fairies would come to their aid. Perhaps after leaving Dunvagen Castle, the wife went to live in another famous fairy site on the island: the Fairy Glen. Another Scottish fairy site is Schiehallion Mountain, whose name translates as “Stronghold of the Fairies of Caledonia.”
Legend says that at the base of Lough Gur, a horseshoe-shaped lake in County Limerick, lies an entrance to the fairy realm of Tir Na’Og, where the Tuatha de Danaan make their home. Along the shores of Loch Gur lie a dolmen* as well as Stone Age houses and the Grange Stone Circle, the largest stone circle in Ireland.
*literally “stone table” from the taol maen in Breton language, a dolmen is a megalithic tomb consisting of three or more upright stones holding a large flat stone
