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What would you consider to be the most prominent locations in Britain associated with fairies?
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The Blackdown Hills in Somerset are reputed to have faeries, there is a faery fair. A gentleman riding on the hills reportedly saw lights like a fair which faded and disappeared as he neared.
Wistmans Wood on Dartmoor in Devon has been said of having elemental energies.
The Blackdown Hills in Somerset are reputed to have faeries, there is a faery fair. A gentleman riding on the hills reportedly saw lights like a fair which faded and disappeared as he neared. Wistmans Wood on Dartmoor in Devon has been said of having elemental energies.
We have a brief mention of the Blackdown Hills in the gazatteer and we mention a school teacher seeing fairies dancing in ring. I wonder if this is the same account changed over time or two seperate incidents.
My vote for the most prominent "fairy" location would be the Ben Bulben in Co Sligo, Ireland.
Up to the opening years of the XX century not only fairies were still seen there, but there were also many persons alive who swore to have interacted with the Gentry near the Ben.
In Distortion We Trust
"Louhi spoke in riddled tones of three things to achieve: find and catch the Devil's Moose and bring it here to me. Seize the Stallion born of Fire, harness the Golden Horse. He captured and bound the Moose, he tamed the Golden Horse. Still there remained one final task: hunt for the Bird from the Stream of Death"
-Kalevala, Rune XIII-
I checked out Ben Bulben and found there was a Finn McCool legend attached to it as well. I came across references to fairies by Yeats as well.
Doon Hill near Aberfoyle must come in close,
www.mysteriousbritain.co.uk/scotland/stirlingshire/featured-sites/doon-hill-and-robert-kirk.html
The Highlands and islands of Scotland. Orkney with its Trows and Haughboys. I agree, Aberfoyle due to Kirk's Secret Commonwealth. In England, Devon and Cornwall have a strong fay heritage. In Wales possibly the Black Hills. (Wirt Sykes - British Goblins is a good source for reading of Welsh faeries.) In Ireland, seems to be an almost universal hidden people presence. I think Yeats speaks of the Sidhe in The Celtic Twilight, if I recall properly. It's a few years since I've read it and there's The Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries by W. Y. Evans-Wentz.
@ndy
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Ireland and the Highlands is where the tradition lasted the longest, I think you can still get the 'Fairy Faith' and 'British Goblins' online as e-books. I am pretty sure Yeats believed in the otherworld (The Stolen Child is a haunting poem) - there was a rumour he was in the Golden Dawn but I don't know how true this is.
WB Yeats was a member of The Golden Dawn and the Stella Matutina order and apparently he played a prominent part in the conflict between Aleister Crowley and Samuel MacGregor Mathers.
According to the Mystica "After the expulsion of both men Yeats took charge of the Ordo Rosae Rubeae et Aureae Crucis and also became the Imperator of the Isis-Urania Temple Outer Order".
@ndy
@~
Shiehallion litterally means Fairy Hill, so that's got to count for something :) Also there is a wee bridge on the Isle of Mann that is well-known as a Faerie haunt.
Glastonbury tor in Somerset is reputed to be the entrance or gateway to Annwyn, the fairy domain beneath the earth, where a day would last a whole year, here amongst the humans. Does anybody know of any other entrances to the underworld?