Mysterious Britain & Ireland

Fairy Ointment

Once upon a time there was, in this celebrated town [Tavistock], a Dame Somebody, I do not know her name, and as she is a real character, I have no right to give her a fictitious one. All I with truth can say, is, that she was old, and nothing the worse for that; for age is, or ought to be, held in honor as the source of wisdom and experience.

Fairy Nurse

There lived a woman in Innish Shark — one of the group of islands on the eastern coast — named Biddy Mannion, as handsome and likely a fisherman’s wife as you would meet in a day’s walk. She was tall, and fair in the face, with skin like an egg, and hair that might vie with the gloss of the raven’s wing.

Troll Labor

Thomas Keightley in his The Fairy Mythology, Illustrative of the Romance and Superstition of Various Countries (1850) gives the following account which was narrated in the form of a legal declaration.

Wild Edric’s Wife

In ‘The Science of Fairy Tales’ (1891), Edwin Sidney Hartland recounts the following tale told by the medieval writer Walter Map (Born 1140- Died c. 1208–1210). ‘Wild Edric*, of whose historic reality as one of the English rebels against William the Conqueror there is ample proof.

Moel Goedog Hillfort

In a commanding position situated on the hills above Harlech are the remains of the suspected late Bronze Age hillfort known as Moel Goedog. It is adjacent to the prehistoric track way of Fonlief Hir, which is indicated by a series of standing stones along the route.

Clogwyn Arllef Hillfort

On the summit of an isolated ridge in the parish of Llanbedr stand the remains of the prehistoric hillfort known as Clogwyn Arllef. The dimensions are roughly 70 metres in diameter from north to south, and 55 metres form west to east. The remains are defined by fallen stone wall which is an average of 2 metres wide.