Irish Culture & Heritage

Once long ago, there was a young couple who lived in a little cottage in the foothills of a heather covered mountain in Ireland. On summer evenings, they liked to meander across the hills and admire the heather and the lark song. 

One evening, they strayed further than usual and came to a hillock with a fairy thorn tree at the top of it. Recognising where they were, the young couple crept silently around the hillock so as not to disturb the fairies who lived there, when all of a sudden, a troupe of dancing fairies appeared, accompanied by a couple of musicians.

Their dancing and music were indeed inviting and the husband, by some irresistible power, jumped into the middle of the fairy ring and joined them, kicking his heels high and twirling round and round with the fairy clan. His wife, Bridie, looked on enjoying the sight of her husband having such great fun.

On and on went the dancing, until at last the sun began to set. As it sank below the horizon, the music suddenly ceased; the fairy clan disappeared, and with them her husband. In great distress, Bridie searched and called her husband’s name, but all in vain. She could not find him.

Heart-broken, Bridie returned home and related her sad tale to her neighbours. “Your husband has been bewitched and taken by the fairies,” said one. “You need to seek help from old Sean Hurley. He’ll know what to do,” said another. 

The next morning, Bridie hurried to see old Sean. When she arrived at his cottage, he was just making a pot of tea and invited her to join him. After hearing her story, Sean told Bridie to follow these instructions. She must go to the same place at the same time exactly one year and one day from the time her husband disappeared. There she would see him again. He warned her though not to enter the fairy ring, but to seize her husband by the hand as he danced past and to pull him out of the enchanted circle. Only then would her husband return to her.

For Bridie, Winter slowly turned to Spring and Spring slowly turned to Summer. When twelve months and one day passed, she anxiously made her way to the hillock where the fairies lived under the fairy thorn tree. At the very moment that her husband had disappeared a year ago, the fairy band came into view and there was her husband still dancing merrily in their midst. He looked exactly the same as she remembered him.

As the fairies drew closer, she began to run around the outside of the circle close to her husband and being very careful not to step into the fairy ring. Several times she tried to grab his hand and several times she missed. Almost weak with exhaustion, she made one final attempt to grasp her husband’s hand. Luckily, the music slowed and she was able to catch hold of his hand and jerked him out of the circle. “Just let me dance a few minutes longer,” pleaded her husband. 

“No!” shouted Bridie. When she told her husband he had been dancing for over a year, he could not believe it. He thought he had been dancing for only a few moments. Such is the power of the fairy ring.

Hand in hand, Bridie and her husband returned home to pick up their life together again. They still like to meander across the hills and admire the heather and the lark song, but they keep well away from that hillock with the fairy thorn tree on top. And dear reader so should you!