Mysterious Britain & Ireland

Category: Fairies

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English Fairies / Fairies / Folklore / Scottish Fairies

Brownies

A widespread name for a fairy or supernatural creature, they were small in appearance and wore brown coloured clothing.

Like many mischievous spirits they were thought to be attached to houses or families and could be helpful in menial household tasks. If offended they became malignant and mischievous, creating poltergeist activity and generally making a nuisance of themselves.

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English Fairies / Fairies / Folklore

Boggart

The Boggart is most commonly found in the counties of Yorkshire and Lancashire, its name appears in places such as Boggart’s Clough and Boggart’s Hole in Lancashire. Boggarts were mischievous spirits responsible for mishaps and poltergeist activity within the home and in the countryside.

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Fairies / Folklore / Scottish Fairies

Kelpie

The Kelpie is the supernatural shape-shifting water horse that haunts the rivers and streams of Scotland. It is probably one of the best known of Scottish water spirits and is often mistakenly thought to haunt lochs, which are the reserve of the Each Uisge.

Ancient Sites / Burial Mounds / Celtic Pantheons / Fairies / Featured Sites / Folklore / Irish Fairies / Pantheons

Newgrange

If we were making a list of the top 100 ancient sites in Britain and Ireland (as is the current vogue) Newgrange would undoubtedly be in the hallowed top 10. Its great age, size, astronomical features and location in the beautiful Boyne Valley, mark it as one of the most important ‘mystery’ sites in Europe.

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Fairies / Folklore / Irish Fairies

Banshee

The Banshee is most commonly visualised as a female spirit who wails in the night to foretell disaster, either to an individual family or more generally. The tradition is the strongest in Ireland but many places with Celtic survivals have a variant of the Banshee.

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Fairies / Folklore / Welsh Fairies

Tylwyth Teg

Tylwyth Teg is a general name for the fairies in Wales, it means the ‘fair folk’. Like the Bendith y Mamau the flattering name was thought to appease them.

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English Fairies / Fairies / Folklore / Scottish Fairies / Welsh Fairies

Will o’ the Wisp

The Will o’ the Wisp is the most common name given to the mysterious lights that were said to lead travellers from the well-trodden paths into treacherous marshes. The tradition exists with slight variation throughout Britain, the lights often bearing a regional name.

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Fairies / Folklore / Irish Fairies / Scottish Fairies

Fachan

The Fachan (Fechan or Fachin or Peg Leg Jack) is a found in Scots-Irish Folklore. A Fachan’s appearance is so terrible it was known to cause heart attacks. It has one eye, one leg, one withered arm coming out of it’s chest and a mane of black feathers.

Apparitions / Fairies / Featured Sites / Folklore / Folktales / Hauntings / Scottish Fairies / Scottish Folktales

Hermitage Castle

Hermitage Castle has a long and colourful history, the castle was a bastion of power in the ‘debatable land’: land that was exchanged between English and Scottish hands during the border wars and skirmishes. The castle is steeped in folklore and legend, and there have been reports of varied strange phenomena in recent years.