Faerie Lore and Legends

Fairy Ring
aka fairy circle, elf circle, elf ring, pixie ring, ronds de sorciers, sorcerer’s rings, witches rings, hexenringe, dragon circles, faerie rings, fairy rings, elf circles, elf rings, elferingewort, cylch y Tylwyth Teg
_{article by Tom Baurley / Leaf McGowan, Technogypsie Research,
© 2013 (12/29/13) – All rights reserved – www.technogypsie.net}

Every now and then you’ll discover these mysterious rings in the woods and think immediately they were the mark of faeries / fairies. They are a naturally occurring ring of mushrooms that can be found in the woods, on a lawn, or in a meadow.

Folklore:
~ Ah the many mysteries of these fairy rings. Nothing radiates more folk or fairy lore than does the magical ring of mushrooms that opens a natural gate between the worlds. This is the reason they are called “Fairy Rings”. They are also known as “sorcerer’s rings” (France: ronds de sorciers), “witches’ rings” (German: “Hexenringe“), “dragon circles”, etc. The Germans believe they mark the site where witches had done their dances during Walpurgis Night, while the Dutch claim the circles show where the Devil placed his milk churn. In Tyrol, it is believed they were created by a dragon’s tail had laid there and nothing but toadstools could grow there for seven years.

Much of folklore warns humans from ever entering them, for they were guarded by harsh magic, faerie magic, or giant bug-eyed toads that would curse those who entered them. Some say, those who enter a fairy ring would lose their eye. In English, Scandinavian, and Celtic lore – fairy rings are the result of fairies or elves dancing and in such regard they were called “elf rings” or “elferingewort” (translates to “a ring of daisies caused by elves dancing”) as early as the 12th century C.E. in written record.

Olaus Magnus in the “History of the Goths” published in 1628 claimed that fairy rings are burnt into the ground by the dancing of elves and in his “Historia de Gentibus Septentrionalibus” says the brightness of the ring is Puck who refreshes the grass after a fairy dance. Thomas Keightley, a British folklorist, claimed that even in 20th century C.E. Scandinavia the beliefs were still strong that these were created by dancing elves. He warned that those humans entering the ring would allow the trespasser to see the elves, but might also trap the intruder in thrall of their illusions.

Rings are known as cylch y Tylwyth Teg in Wales as late as the 19th century and once again represented a place where faeries are dancing in a group. Wales, Scotland, Cornwall, England, and Ireland still have stories being told of them. Some tell tales of joining a fairy dance within the ring, this act sometimes opening a portal between the worlds, and trapping some humans eternally – especially if they have fairy food and drink after the dance. The parties are known to be done during moonlit nights as the rings only become visible to humans the following morning.

In the Philippines, these fairy rings are also associated with diminutive spirits. Theree are 20th century tales of fairies dancing around a hawthorn thereby creating a fairy ring around them with a tree in the center. Ethnographic tales of a Balquhidder Scotland resident who claims the faeries sit atop these mushrooms and use them as dinner tables, while a Welsh woman says they use the umbrellas as parasols and umbrellas, and in Devon that a black hen with chickens will appear sometimes at dusk in a large ring on the edge of Dartmoor, while Manx and Welsh legends from the 1960’s claim fairy rings appear where there is an underground fairy village underneath.

The Dartmoor’s “Pixies’ Church” is a rock formation that is supposedly surrounded by a fairy ring, and the Northern Wales Cader Idris site consists of a stone circle where fairies like to dance. Some believe that those trespassing into the fairy ring will meet the wraith of Psyche and Eros as it is forbidden for Psyche to view her love and when she does, her palace disappears and she is left alone. Some say fairy circles are sacred spaces and if interfered with will lead to a curse. There is an Irish telling of a tale that once a farmer built a barn atop a fairy ring despite his neighbors warning him not to – he was struck senseless one night and a local ‘fairy doctor’ had to come over to break the curse, he dream t he had to destroy the barn to make amends. Some believe even collecting dew from the grass or flowers of a fairy ring would bring bad luck. Legends claim one who enters the ring will die at a young age, others claim they are a ‘galley-trap’ so that if a thief or murderer enters the ring they will be hung. Those who enter the ring become invisible to mortals outside of the ring, and visible to the fairies within the ring and unable to escape it. Sometimes the fae will force the intruder to dance to the point of exhaustion, injury, death, or madness.

Many Welsh legends talk of this, luring mortals within and then dace them to deatIt is supposedly even more dangerous for a human to enter the ring during Samhain (Halloween) Eve or May Day / May Eve as this is the most sacred dancing nights of the fae and they would be horribly angered if disturbed on such momentous times. There is a tale of a shepherd who accidently disturbed a ring of rushes where fairies were getting ready to dance – in such reaction they held him hostage until he married one of them. One can only gain escape from the ring by outside help. A Welsh method was to cast wild marjoram and thyme into the circle to befuddle the fairies so they can help their friend or family out of the ring. Others claim one needs to touch the victim with iron and that would let them exit. Rescue though could be as simple as someone reaching in and pulling their friend out of the ring. One Langollen farmer claimed he had to have four men tie him to a rope so that when he entered the ring to save his daughter they could pull him out.

Christian theory is to rely on the faith to break the enchantment, alternatively using a stick from a rowan tree (wood the cross that Jesus was on was made from) would break the curse or the stating of the phrase “what, in Heaven’s name” would break it. The longevity of the rescue could be as long as a year and a day to wait and the victim would appear in the same spot s/he vanished before being able to pull them out. Time also moves faster in the realm of fae, so what seems like an hour could be days, weeks, or years later. Those rescued could also lose memory of their encounters. It was told of a man who escaped the fairy ring, once he stepped outside of it he crumbled to dust. Another moulders away after his first bite of food after he escaped the ring. In the Aberystwyth region, a woman who was saved from the fairy ring once touched by metal disappears.

Most claim that the only way one can safely explore a fairy ring is to run around it 9 times which will allow the runner to hear the fairies dancing underground, while others claims this sprint must be done during a full moon and the runner travelling in the direction of the sun others a widdershins direction will allow the fairies to take control of the sprinter. If the runner miscounts, to do it a 10th round would be a fateful error. If one wears a hat backwards this will confuse the fae and make them inable to pull the wearer into the ring.

Science:
They start to grow when a spawn (mycelium) of a mushroom falls in a selected spot and sends out a underground network of fine tubular threads called hyphae which grow out of the spore evenly in every direction, forming a circular mat of underground hyphal threads. These produce mushrooms that grow upwards in similar patterns as below ground and eventually the underground mycelium at the center of the circle dies out, but its living edges keep growing year to year and the diameter of the ring keeps increasing and as the ring’s underground network dies out until the surface ring can no longer be detected.

These are very common with the Agaricus campestris that measures normally around six feet in diameter. But also the Marasmius oreades, nicknamed the fairy ring mushroom, will form a large irregular ring that have been recorded upwards of 1,200 feet in diameter.

Science has two prevalent theories as to how fairy rings are formed – one idea is that a sporocarpus delivers a spore underground and the presence of that fungus there can cause withering or color changes in the grasses above it. These spores give blossom to fungi and mushrooms through the soil after rainstorms, but also grows a huge network of thread-like mycelia in the soil and while the mushrooms look like individual fungi, they are all a part of the mycelia just beneath the soil’s surface.

The other theory is that the rings are formed by connecting oval genets of the mushrooms with other neighboring mushrooms. In this way if they grow in a ring or an arc, they are continuously grown from the center of this object. Fairy rings also create a necrotic zone during their composition and decomposition – this is an area in the grass or local surface plant-life that has withered or died away. Fairy rings can cause arcs, circles, rings, double arcs, sickle-shaped arcs, and other geometric formations during this process.

The Fungi will deplete the soil of other usual readily available nutrients like nitrogen which makes the plant life in the circle to become discolored while others will cause luxuriant growth as they release chemicals which act like hormones. Some theories believe they are dependent on wildlife such as rabbits – as in the case example of the fairy rings on Shillingstone Hill in England, where chalky soils on higher elevation slopes and meadows produce numerous rings – and its believed the rabbits mow the grass short and add to it nitrogen-rich droppings that feed the soil the nitrogen the mushrooms need, feeding the mycelium. Later generations of fungi grow outwards as the parent generations have depleted the nitrogen levels, and as the rabbits keep dropping n’ cropping the grass, they ignore the fungi, take away competition by the consumption of the grasses, allowing the mushrooms to prosper.

Once a circle of mushrooms reaches a 6 meter diameter, the rabbit droppings will replenish the nitrogen levels in the center and a secondary ring can grow within the first. There are two recognized forms of fairy ring fungus – (1) tethered – found in woods and are formed by mycorrhizal fungi living in commensalism with the trees. (2) free – mushroom fungi that are not connected with other organisms and are often found in meadows as they contain saprotrophic mushrooms. Within this type the Calvatia cyathiformis will affect the local grass to grow more abundantly while the Leucopaxillus giganteus causes the grasses to wither.

The are 60 species of fungi that can grow in fairy ring patterns – the most popular is the edible Scotch bonnet (Marasmius oreades) that is also known as the fairy ring champignon. The largest ring recorded was near Belfort, France at nearly 600 meters in diameter (2,000 feet), over 700 years old, and was the Infundibulicybe geotropa fungus. Southern England’s South Downs rings formed by Calocybe gambosa also seem to be several hundred years old.

Species that form fairy rings:
Agaricus arvensis, Agaricus campestris, Agaricus praerimosus, Amanita muscaria, Amanita phalloides, Amanita rubescens, Bovista dermoxantha, Calocybe gambosa, Calvatia cyathiformis,
Clitocybe dealbata, Clitocybe nebularis, Clitocybe nuda, Clitocybe rivulosa, Chlorophyllum molybdites, Chlorophyllum rhacodes, Cyathus stercoreus, Disciseda subterranea, Entoloma sinuatum, Gomphus clavatus, Infundibulicybe geotropa, Lepista sordida, Leucopaxillus giganteus, Lycoperdon gemmatum, Marasmius oreades, Sarcodon imbricatus, Tricholoma album, Tricholoma orirubens, Tricholoma pardinum, Tricholoma matsutake, Tuber melanosporum, and Vascellum curtisii.

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Irish Faerie Forts

These intriguing fortresses of old have always fascinated me conceptually once I read about them in the many legends and folklore of the Irish Faeries. However, it wasn’t until the last two years that I’ve had the chance to explore these raths of myths and tales in-depth and personally wondering if they are truly gateways into the Land of the Young, Tir Na Nog or the Faerie Otherworld. “Fairy Forts” are the names given especially by the Irish, Cornish, and other residents of the Isles around Ireland, Scotland, Wales, and Britain who strongly believe in the faerie folk. This is a localized term for the “raths”, “ringforts”, “lios”, “hillforts”, “rounds”, “earthen mounds”, or circular dwellings found in England, Ireland, Scotland, Isle of Man, and Wales.

Archaeologists will tell you these came to be around the late Iron Age and were used upwards to the domain of early Christianization of the land when the Island’s residents dwelled in circular structures (perhaps “roundhouses”) within earthen banks or ditches that were used for defense. These were believed to have been topped with wooden palisades, stone or wood buildings, roundhouses, or structures. Many archaeologists believe that these were primarily made of wooden structures that would have decayed, which is why none of the structures remained, leaving only vague circular marks in the landscape. These “fairy forts” or “raths” are simply large mounds of earth, clay, grass, hedges, bushes, gorse, and thorn that are circular in shape like that believed to be a round banked enclosure. Archaeology tells us the circular bank was formerly the base for a high fence or wall of sharpened logs, sometimes with or without a water-filled moat. Inside the circular enclosure, more often than not, are round wooden thatched dwellings. Also within this enclosure was kept livestock during bad weather and to prevent raiding. There are believed to be over 40,000 ring forts in Ireland alone. In 2009, a team of four photographers supported by Wales Arts International took a road trip across Western Ireland to record and photograph fairy forts. These can be seen at www.fairyfortproject.com. Actual “Sidhe,” or Hills, are most commonly interpreted as burial mounds, passage tombs, or tumuli. Human remains have been found in these to support archaeology. ~ Some claim the Tuatha de Danann were the “Danes” who were legendary “fort builders.”

However, this is disputed by many folklorists and archaeologists, as most of the forts took on Gaelic names. According to Archaeology, the forts are attributed to various times and races. Legend even attributes them to belong to the Firbolgs, Tuatha De Danann, the Celts, and the Vikings, as well as mythological individuals such as Aenghus, Eerish, Eir, Farvagh, Cuchuallain, Midir, Croaghan, ‘Lachtna (820-840 C.E.), Brian Boru (980-1014 C.E.), and King Conor (1242-1269 C.E.). Places throughout the Isles are named after faeries, banshees, and other beings or myths surrounding them. tells a different story opposing the archaeologists’ perspective. The land’s myths, legends, and lore tell that these ring forts were “fairy forts” blessed and protected with Druidic prayers, spells, and magic to protect the “faeries” that lived within or under them. Those who believe in Faeries do not alter or trespass on them.

Legend states that the Tuatha De Danann and Fir Bolg had originally inhabited Ireland as a mythical race of magical folk who dominated Ireland. Around the time of the Iron Age (oddly enough corresponding to archaeology’s dating of raths), when the Milesians came to Ireland and defeated the Tuatha De Danann, the Tuatha was forced to relocate to the Other World, A Faerie dimension, or down below the hills, to Middle Earth as an agreement that only the Milesians ~ the humans ~ could dwell above ground. The Faeries, the “Good Neighbours” had to move underground or to their “Faerie Isles”. They were to retreat into the hills or mounds called “sidhe” which became a word for the “faeries“. These were often described as circular barrows or ringforts. These “hollow hills” have traditionally become known as the home of Faeries. “Sidhe” in Gaelic means “people of the hills.”

According to the Book of Armagh, they are the Gods of the Earth known as the Tuatha de Danann. Sometimes seen as God/desses, other times as Druids or sorcerers, and on an odd occasion as aliens, the Tuatha have rich mythology firmly embedded into Irish lore. Some Irish call them the “Sidheog”. To many Christian groups, faeries are believed by some to be fallen angels who are too good ever to be allowed in Hell and too devilish to be accepted into Heaven. From these myths, these defensive forts were seen to be the domain of the Tuatha De Danann as entrances to their world. They are to be respected and avoided because of respect and fear of “war” retaking place between faeries and humans. The actual mounds are also seen as potential burial or sacred resting places.

As Archaeology has found many burials within such mounds, such as at Newgrange and Tara, hillforts and mounds are avoided out of superstition. A good farmer wouldn’t even mess with the moat, the walls, cut brush from it, remove stones, or damage it. If they did, hard luck and even death could follow. Most respected on these “fairy forts” were the white thorns, the ash, the gorse, or the “sceach” around its boundaries never to be cut for that would most likely lead to death. In MacCraith’s “Triumphs of Torlough” the “fairy forts” are labelled as the lodgings of appalling apparitions. Many stories of the hills lit up by strange lights at night. Sometimes, this is described as the hill rising up on pillars, opening to the night sky, revealing brilliant lights of Faeries processing from one hill to another, especially during Lammas tide (August 2nd through 7th). November 11th, during Hollantide, is when the Manx fear their Hogmen or Hillmen the most as it is the time these particular Fae choose to move from one hill to another.

Irish lore and ghost stories tell much about the supernatural stature of “Fairy forts.” Many believe “leprechauns” live in them and hide their pots of gold within the mounds as expressed in Rudyard Kipling’s 1906 novel “Puck of Pook’s Hill”. In addition to the Ringforts, Dolmen were considered faerie homes or dwellings. A legend tells of a lady who lived in one and became deranged, thought her lover was a dragon, and jumped at him. Many unexplained phenomena take place in or around the fairy forts. Local lore tells tales of a man who tried to blast down a dolmen resulting in a septic hand while the dolmen remained unscathed; the local astronomer who tried to blast the Inchiquin Barony dolmen was severely injured with his hand as well; a Templenaraha oratory demolition (which was in a ringfort) collapsed a calf shed onto its occupants for building the unstable structure; the 1840 tale of workmen at Dooneeva who were trying to level earthworks in a fairy fort had apparently turned up dead (though his mystic wife ran to a “fairy spot” to work magic to bring him back to life); The Lissardcarney and Ballyhee fairy forts in Templemaley Parish were always known to be faerie strongholds with troops of faeries garrisoned within them (1839 stories); Songs were reputedly heard from the Cahernanoorane in Inchiquin and Liskeentha near Noughaval; tales of faeries haunting the Tobersheefra holy well; the 1892 tale of Nihill a farmer who wrecked and removed the out wall of a triple stone fort near Quin leading to his father stricken with acute pain and only recovering from it when the work was stopped; a landlord losing the use of an eye from the dust of an explosion when blasting a rock in an earth fort being removed in northeast Clare; and in 2011 developer Sean Quinn found financial ruin after he moved a fairy fort.

Another tale tells of a cow that grazed in a fairy fort and was found with broken legs whose owner then ate its meat only to find the cow in the fairy fort a year later. The farmer was told by the faeries they substituted an old stray horse to make him believe it was his cow as they needed his cow’s milk, and they then let him take his cow home afterwhich he became very prosperous for the loan. Another tale tells of another farmer who couldn’t understand why none of the cows would enter the fairy fort on their property, and upon investigation by his son, found an old fairy in the fort who asked the man to help him get a young human girl to become his wife. The farmer’s son would not give a young girl to the old fairy but instead married the girl himself, leading to rage from the old fairie, who destroyed the farmer’s property. Outraged, the farmer’s son and the girl rode to her parent’s house to tell her three brothers. Her brothers then went to the fort to dig for the old fairy’s house, upon finding his sizeable flat stone, he begged them to save him his home, which they did in exchange for restoring for what he had taken. Some ringforts are more dangerous than others, such as in the case of the Croaghateeaun stone ring wall near Lisdoonvarna. One of the most modern cases of faerie wraith damaging faerie forts was believed to be the invocation of an ancient curse of the Hill of Tara when the government destroyed sites by the construction of the M3 Motorway. In 2007 the Minister for the Environment, Dick Roche supposed befell against bad financial luck after signing a order to destroy the Lismullion Henge. By Faerie wraith, he lost his job, was demoted, and held up by an armed gang in the Druids Glen Hotel. The Minister for Transport, Martin Cullen, afterward nearly got sucked out of a helicopter when the door fell off. A falling tree at Rath Lugh seriously injured the Chief Health and Safety officer. A worker was killed while being trapped at Fairyhouse, where there have been many accidents on that particular stretch of road. There is much concern about being taken by the fairies.

Fears from stories like these may be responsible for the incredible preservation of these forts, hills, raiths, and mounds across the countryside. In many areas, the raiths and fairy forts are protected by Irish law for heritage preservation, preventing construction or building within 30 meters of them. However, the Irish government and more giant corporations somehow skirt these laws often when they find the need to destroy them for construction projects or building motorways.

Drumdowney Fairy Fort in Ireland

Littering the landscape are also pathways that some call “fairy paths.” Some align these with what they believe to be mystical geo-magnetic gridlines called “leylines”. Many believe these connect together using faerie sites or faerie forts. Many old buildings in Ireland are missing parts of the structure out of the belief that part obstructs a faerie path. Other faerie sites include mounds, isles, wells, and faerie trees or bushes. These sites are often dressed and adorned with “rags” or “wishing trees” with offerings to faeries for blessings.

Today, many believe that milk, butter, and/or honey offerings would appease the Good Neighbours at these places. However, not much histories or archaeological record make that proved to be true. This seems to come more from Swedish folklore in “elf mills,” which is found in the covers of more than one of these structures and large bullauns or basins at others. Modern belief is to leave out food and drink for the faeries, often on plates and cups at the faerie forts. Evidence of this is found at Inchiquin and Moyarta Baronies and on the Shannon bank where the slopes were thrown out and clean plates, water, chairs, and a well swept hearth was left for the faerie guests. Fairy forts, isles, and mounds are not the only doorways to the land of Tir Na n’Og believed to exist. Cave entrances in Ireland are also believed to be passages as well. Two of the most famous are Lough Gur in County Limerick and Rathcrogan in County Roscommon. One of Ireland’s famous fairy forts is at the Knocknashee mountain. Here it is believed, that if you make a wish, turn around three times with your eyes closed, and if you wind up facing Knocknashee when you open your eyes, the wish will come true. A “fairy” amusement park for kids is also at the base of this mountain dedicated to the “faeries.”

Some say the entrance to the Otherworld will appear if you walk nine times clockwise around the fairy fort, mound, or isle during the full moon. Invitations into the faerie domain can be prosperous or fateful. Such invitations, especially food and drink offers, should be taken carefully by humans. Some legends warn that partaking of food and drink will lead to perpetual enslavement and a loss of time, space, or continuum.

Some myths state that after the Tuatha de Danann lost the battle with the Milesians, in addition to being forced underground, they were shrunk in size and stature. They are often described as “human-like” in appearance, sometimes with animal features, paler skin tone, and green eyes. Throughout the history of Ireland, faeries, especially as personified as belonging to the Tuatha, litter the landscape. Some families claim that their ancestors crossed the fae, and thereby invoked neverending hauntings by Banshees. The banshee is often depicted as a Irish female faerie that comes out at night drawing a comb through her long silvery hair screaming and wailing, mainly when predicting the death of one of their family members. Some lore suggests that the Banshee haunts families with surnames preceded by an O’.

The earliest writer of describing faeries was in 1014 C.E. while describing the terrors of the battles between the Norse and Irish speaking of a “bird of valor and championship fluttering over Merchad’s head and flying on his breath” as well as flying dark and merciless bodbh screamingly fluttering over the combatants while the bannanaig or styrs, idiots, maniacs of the glens, witches, goblins, ancient birds, and destroying demons of the air and skies arose to accompany the warriors in combat. A 1350 C.E. writer wrote about the 1286 C.E. King Torlough returning from a successful raid ravaging the English lands around the mountains of eastern County Limerick and northern Tipperary where he was greeted by a lovely maiden in” modest, strange in aspect, glorious in form, rosy-lipped, soft-taper-handed, pliant-wavy-haired, white-bosomed” appearance as the “Sovereignty of Erin” to rebuke the chief for letting de Burgh dissuade him from attempting the reconquest of all Ireland thereby vanishing in a lustrous cloud within an area graced with fairy forts, dolmen, and tumuli. It is also here that it was written that the soldiers of Donchad were also disturbed by phantoms and delusive dreams of lights shining on the fairy forts. Poetry took over describing these battles and the soldiers witnessing the “waves of Erin” groaning “the deep plaint resounded from the woods and streams” as shades were seen and hollow groans heard while gazing at the hills and forts.

I can speak from first hand while sleeping in homes near such forts, that the winds making noises through the shutters and windows, along the rocks and bushes, whisper and cry like a siren in angst. These are the same described in faerie tales of the forts and beings coming up from the underground caverns, streams, hills, and forts. Sightings of Faeries have dwindled significantly from the 18th to the 20th centuries. Though many Irish today still have stories of their parents and grandparents telling them of faerie abductions, sightings, or wrath. Some say the movement of Faeries causes the dusty whirlwinds along the roadside or in the fields. Some places are still reputed to be “fairy hotspots” to this day.

 One such is the low earth mound at Newmarket-on-Fergus, where one apparition has reliably manifested for the last ten years. This one appears as a little old man dressed in green walking on Ennis road, thought to be a leprechaun perhaps. Much of modern legend has mutated into actual individuals today who claim to have faerie blood, kindred, or to be faeries living amongst humans. This has led to many novels, books, and movies in the 20th century addressing this new lore. This however is not completely new, as many through history have claimed to be of Faerie lineage. A Faerie monarch in Clare was the “Donn of the Sandhills” near the Doogh castle near Lehinch, is listed as a fairy prince named Donn within a list of the divine race of the Tuatha De Danann and family of the Dagda, lineal descendant of the ancient Ana, Mother of the Gods. He was addressed with a political petition in 1730 by Andrew MacCurtin, a well known Irish scholar and antiquarian for neglecting the gentry and praying for any menial post at his court. He was never answered, lived under the hospitality of the Kilkee MacDonnells and the Ennistymon O’Briens. Donn’s heartless conduct supposedly met poetic justice as he lacked a sacred bard and became forgotten through history.

Changelings are another case and another type of faerie within the “Fae” races that are commonly found in folklore and mythology. History worldwide refers to them or some derivative of the belief. Most of the folklore make faeries out to be extremely malevolient towards humans. Much of legend suggests that faeries are envious of humans, often wanting to steal the secrets of their magic, even to the point of changing out human infants with faerie children called “changelings.” The changeling would look “identical” to the stolen child. The only way to tell if it wasn’t your child is if the personality suddenly changed inexplicably. This led to many folk customs, beliefs, spells, and practices to protect children from faeries. Sometimes, these were as simple as dressing up boys to look like girls, placing iron in the child’s bed, dropping a small drop of human urine on a child, keeping dirty water in the house, protective charms, and various woods, herbs, or stones.

Bibliography / References:

• Boards.ie: ~ Fairy Forts. Website referenced January 2012. www.boards.ie.
• Dunnings Pub: Folklore. Website referenced January 2012. www.dunningspub.com.
• Fairy Fort Project. Website referenced January 2012.
• Froud, Brian; Lee, Alan. 1978 ”Faeries” through Rufus Publications.
• Historum ~ “Irish Fairy Forts”. Website referenced January 2012. www.historum.com.
• Irish Central: ~ Ireland suffering from ancient curse of Tara and furious Fairy Forts. Website referenced January 2012.
• Slavin, Michael. 1996 “The Book of Tara”. Wolfhound Press.
• Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia ~ “Fairy Forts”. Website referenced January 2012. http://en.wikipedia.org.
• Westropp, Thomas Johnson ”A Folklore Survey of County Clare: Fairies and Fairy Forts and Mounds. Website referenced January 2012. www.clarelibrary.ie.

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The Fairy-Go-Round Ring Fort on the Dingle Peninsula, County Kerry, Ireland:

The Fairy-Go-Round Ring Fort, Dingle Peninsula, Co. Kerry, Ireland