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The Elf Stone
"The 'Elf-stone' (aka Elf-shot) is described as sharp, and with many corners and points, so that whichever way it falls it inflicts a...


Bluebell Folklore
The bluebell thrives at the start of the warmer weather but will die off from mid-June, when the trees have their full compliment of...


Spring Equinox & The Fairy Hunt
"And beyond them, almost hidden by the moon shadows, were the Lords of the Ever-Living Ones: the antlered helmets of the Wild Hunt, the...


The Fairy Wind
Some believe that the Good People travel within a 'Fairy Wind' to move from one place to another, this is why must never interfere with a...


Seasonal Poetry & Prose: 'The Darkling Thrush', by Thomas Hardy
I leant upon a coppice gate When Frost was spectre-grey, And Winter's dregs made desolate The weakening eye of day. The tangled...


The Sheela na Gig - An Ancient Fertility Goddess?
Sheela na Gig’s are stone carvings of women exposing their genitals which are found mostly on church buildings associated with the Normans, however they have also been found outside Ireland and many believe they are vestiges of older, Pagan iconography. There has also been some support for two carved figures found on Boa Island, Co. Fermanagh to be considered as part of the Sheela na Gig family and one of these carvings is believed to be pre-Christian. Sheela na Gigs can als


The Folklore of Daffodils and the Return of Spring
I noticed that the first daffodils are beginning to emerge on our local fairy fort, Rathvilly moat, so I wonder if this is a sign of things about to change for the better? Obviously we need the winter and darkness as it is all part of the cycle of things but you do reach a point when the brighter days are very welcome again. Within many folklore traditions the area where daffodils grow wildly is considered to be a magic place and this is certainly the case with Rathvilly moat


The Secret Fairy-Paths of the Air
In previous posts I wrote about the argument that a person today is so embedded in contemporary life that they have little chance of a...


An insightful description of the Leprechaun
The Leprechauns are merry, industrious, tricksy little sprites, who do all the shoemaker’s work and the tailor’s and the cobblers for the...


Seasonal Poetry & Prose: 'The Man who Trod on Sleeping Grass', by Dora Sigerson Shorter
In a field by Cahirconlish I stood on sleeping grass, No cry I made to Heaven From my dumb lips would pass. Three days, three nights I...


A Faerie Horse?
"Long ago there lived in the townland of Doon a man named Harty. He had a farm of land near the Shannon. Every morning Harty used to find...


Seasonal Poetry & Prose: 'Dream-Song', by Walter De La Mare
Sunlight, moonlight, Twilight, starlight— Gloaming at the close of day, And an owl calling, Cool dews falling In a wood of oak and may. ...


Seasonal Poetry & Prose: 'Fairy Tea', by D. K. Stevens
‘Twas very, very long ago, in days no longer sung, when giant stood about so high, and pixies all were young. The Queen of Fairies said...


Birds can see Earth's magnetic fields, and now we know how that's possible
The mystery behind how birds navigate might finally be solved: it's not the iron in their beaks providing a magnetic compass, but a...


Welsh folklore; the 'Aderyn y Corph'
Did you know... the 'Aderyn y Corph' is a bird from Wales which chirps at the door of the person who is about to die, and makes a noise...


Seasonal Poetry & Prose: 'The Message of the Rain', by Norman H. Russell
When i was a child i was a squirrel a bluejay a fox and spoke with them in their tongues climbed their trees dug their dens and knew the...


Seasonal Poetry & Prose: 'Feed The Birds', by Sylvia Spencer
Birds of Britain, I watch them fly high beautiful birds as they wing to the sky. They are a star studded spangle of gracious charm. A...


Observation about the nature of Piskies (Pixies)
I always understood the Piskies to be little people. A great deal was said about ghosts in this place. Whether or not Piskies are the...















