Think you know about fairies? Think again. Throughout the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries, people reported curious encounters with these tiny beings much like modern Bigfoot sightings. Even today, baffling reports keep the folklore alive.

Why These Curious Encounters Captivate Us

Each story below shows how ordinary people stumbled onto the uncanny, reminding us that the line between myth and reality is often thinner than we imagine.

10 Dangerous Curiosity

On a midsummer day in 1853, County Donegal, Ireland, a boy named Neil Colton was out berry‑picking with his brother and cousin. The trio heard distant music, followed the sound, and spotted a circle of six to eight tiny figures dancing a few hundred feet away.

Suddenly a small woman dressed in red broke from the group and lunged at the children, striking Neil’s cousin with what looked like a green rush. The children fled home, but the cousin collapsed dead upon arrival.

Neil’s father summoned a priest, who read psalms and tapped the girl with his stole, reviving her from a death‑like trance. The priest warned that had the cousin not grabbed Neil’s brother during the attack, she might have been taken forever by the fairies.

9 Lords Of The Dance

In August 1862, timber carriers David Evans and Evan Lewis rested near the farm of Cwmdwr after a trip from Brecon, Wales. While watching reapers, Evans spotted a line of roughly 50 tiny figures climbing a hill about 370 m (1,200 ft) away.

When the first figure reached the summit, it began to dance. One by one, all the figures arrived and formed a massive circle, spiraling ever closer to the center. As each reached the core, it vanished into the ground.

After every figure disappeared, they reappeared in reverse order, danced another round, and then vanished for good. An old man they met on the road suggested his grandfather recalled similar fairy dances in the area.

8 The Mail Must Get Through

Folklorist William Martin was vacationing on the Isle of Man in 1887 when a mail‑cart driver recounted a bizarre 1884 incident. While returning with bags of mail, the driver encountered a troop of red‑clad fairies carrying lanterns about 10 km (6 mi) from his destination.

The fairies stopped his horse, flung the mailbags onto the road, and began to dance around them. Every time the driver managed to place a bag back on the cart, the mischievous reds tossed it out again. This chaotic waltz continued until daybreak, leaving the driver hours late and thoroughly irritated.

7 Pesky Pixies

In a 1928 issue of the Transactions of the Devonshire Association, Mrs. G. Herbert recounted two strange episodes. In 1897, at age seven, she saw a tiny man—about 45 cm (18 in) tall—nestled under an overhanging boulder on Dartmoor. He wore a forward‑curving pointed hat, a doublet, and short knicker‑like trousers before vanishing.

Twenty‑eight years later, now 35, Herbert rode a horse across the same moors. She became hopelessly lost despite knowing the landmarks. Suspecting pixies were toying with her, she turned her pockets inside out—a traditional charm against fairy magic. Instantly, the surroundings became familiar, and she found her way home safely.

6 A Sad Fate For A Little Man

In May 1913, brothers Silbie, Sid, and Clyde Latham were chopping cotton on their Texas farm near Farmersville when their dogs barked furiously at something. The boys discovered a tiny green‑clad man—about 45 cm (18 in) tall—wearing what resembled a rubbery green sombrero.

Before the boys could react, the dogs attacked, ripping the little man apart and scattering red blood and organs. The boys, horrified, retreated to their work. When they told their parents, the adults dismissed the tale. By the next day, any trace of the creature had vanished.

5 Notes From The Fairy Investigation Society

Around 1937, the English Fairy Investigation Society—yes, it really existed—received a letter from a young woman staying at an old house in Gloucester, adjacent to the Birdlip Beeches forest.

After washing her hair, she stepped into a sunny spot to let it dry. Suddenly she felt an odd tug. Turning, she saw a man only 23 cm (9 in) tall, with dead‑leaf‑colored, wrinkled skin, tangled in her hair. He squeaked that she had no right to be there. The moment he freed himself, he vanished.

4 A Hairy Fairy

In 1948, ten‑year‑old E.J.A. Reynolds was on a summer holiday in Horsham, England, setting rabbit traps under a moonlit sky. After a short wait, a hair‑covered figure about 45 cm (18 in) tall stepped out of a blackberry bush.

The creature’s face was bare and leathery, its nose sharp, and its arms unusually long. After a brief stare, the odd man slipped back into the shrub. When Reynolds later rode a double‑decker bus through Horsham, he spotted the same hairy little man strolling across a garden in broad daylight—though the adults laughed at his tale.

3 The Workman

On April 30, 1973, author Mary Treadgold rode a bus on the Isle of Mull. The bus pulled aside for an oncoming car, giving her a view of a tiny man—about 45 cm (18 in) tall—digging a hole near a patch of heather.

He stood with a foot on his shovel, ready to drive it into the ground, yet remained perfectly still, as if frozen. He wore blue overalls, a glowing white shirt with rolled‑up sleeves, tight curly brown hair, and a sack beside him. Treadgold stared for roughly four seconds, confirming he was a living being, not a statue, before the bus rolled away and the figure vanished.

2 An Actual Twinkly Fairy?

The May 1977 issue of FATE published a letter from Cynthia Montefiore describing two odd sightings at her mother’s home in Somerset, England. While learning rose cuttings, the mother whispered for silence, then pointed to a bloom where a 15‑cm (6‑in) tall woman with dragonfly‑like wings hovered, pale pink with silvery hair, wielding a tiny glowing wand.

The pair watched the fairy for two minutes as her wings beat like a hummingbird’s before she vanished, leaving the lesson unfinished. Later, Montefiore, reading under a tree, saw a sturdily built figure in a one‑piece brown suit sprint from the lawn to a young fir tree and disappear. The figure was about 45 cm (18 in) tall, prompting her to investigate the tree—though nothing unusual was found.

1 A Night To Remember

In the summer of 2005, a man identified only as “J.F.” recounted a eerie encounter near Chicora, Pennsylvania. While his group relaxed on a back deck, a spotlight illuminated the area. A sudden noise from a potted plant sent a creature soaring into the air.

The being stood about 30 cm (12 in) tall, with a human‑like head, long pointy ears, and something wrapped around its torso. It hovered briefly between the spotlight and the witnesses, then unfurled delicate, bat‑like wings that resembled a butterfly’s membrane, veins glowing in the light.

The creature emitted a soft greenish glow, lingered a moment longer, then fluttered across the deck like a butterfly before disappearing into the dark woods. The group unanimously labeled the phenomenon a fairy.

When you hear the phrase top 10 things about fairies, you might picture glittering wings and tiny shoes. In reality, the folklore surrounding these elusive beings is far richer, darker, and more complicated than the sugary stories we hand to children. Below we unravel ten startling facts that will make you see the fairy world in a whole new, unsettling light.

Uncover the top 10 things that reveal the hidden side of fairy folklore

10 The Fairies Were Descended From the Fallen Angels

In the latter half of the 19th century, storytellers across Scotland, Wales, Ireland, and the Isle of Man proudly recounted a celestial pedigree for the fairy folk. According to their lore, a proud angel sparked a rebellion among the heavenly hosts. So many followed him that the Son cried, “Father! Father! The city is being emptied!” prompting God to slam shut the gates of both heaven and hell. Those who had already slipped out of heaven were trapped, while the rebels, unable to reach hell, were hurled into the earth’s fissures, becoming what we now call the Fairy Folk—condemned to dwell underground and permitted to surface only when the Fairy King allowed.

This mythic ancestry neatly explained the astonishing power attributed to fairies, some of whom were believed capable of unmaking the world at a whim. It also justified their ambiguous moral standing: neither wholly benevolent nor wholly malevolent, neither of this realm nor the next, earning them the moniker “The Middle Kingdom” among traditional believers.

9 Fairy Sightings

One might assume the question “Are fairies real?” is merely academic, yet scholar Simon Young has catalogued a staggering array of sightings spanning continents and centuries. During the Boer War years (1900‑1901), a five‑year‑old boy reported nightly columns of tiny soldiers marching over his bed, accompanied by splendid martial music. Decades later, in 1951, he—later identified as Cambridge historian Victor Purcell—swore under oath he would attest to the truth of his experience in any court of law.

Across the Irish Sea, a Welsh fisherman once encountered an elderly, diminutive male figure in a stream who chattered, “Catch him, Tommy, I like to eat trouts, Tommy!” The fisherman, irritated, turned his line and was startled to see the fairy vanish in open country. The witness, Commander T. A. Powell, later demanded, “How did he know my name?”

8 The Leprechaun Hunt of West Limerick

Near the famed fairy hill of Knockfierna, schoolboy John Keely sprinted to the Mulqueen residence, insisting he’d seen a fairy. The family sent him back to confront the apparition, which replied, “I am from the mountains, and my business is none of yours.” The following day, two fairies materialised at the crossroads between Ballingarry and Kilfinney—six miles from Rathkeale—leaping with skipping ropes and displaying a height comparable to a man’s. Eyewitnesses, including Robert and John Mulligan, described them as roughly two feet tall, bearing hard, hairy faces, lacking ears, dressed in red with a white cape, and wearing knee‑breeches and “vamps” for shoes.

The spectacle, dated to late August or early September 1938, drew crowds from across Limerick. Locals chased the leprechauns believing they guarded treasure; folklore claimed that capturing one and keeping it in a box for a year and a day would compel the creature to reveal its hoard’s location. (Any health‑and‑safety advice? We’re all ears.)

7 Fairy Music

On the Isle of Man, the Manx once pressed their ears to Dalby Mountain’s earth, claiming they could hear the “Sounds of Infinity” (Sheean‑ny‑Feaynid). While many attribute these murmurs to tidal movements over pebbles, some suggest a deeper, otherworldly resonance. W. W. Gill recorded a remote fairy‑haunted triangle of hills and a river valley where locals gathered to hear an uncanny “singing,” described as human voices in distant unison exhaled mysteriously from a steep bank called the Granane.

In 1922, Oxford composer Dr. Thomas Wood vacationed on Dartmoor with friends and heard an ethereal melody drifting overhead—faint as a breath, then swelling before fading after twenty minutes. With no wireless sets in sight, Wood quickly transcribed the music, swearing “I am prepared to say on oath that what I wrote down is so close to the original that the authors themselves would not know the difference.” Decades later, American author Chris Woodyard performed Wood’s transcription on an electronic organ, and musicians are invited to arrange the piece for two violins for another “first.”

6 Fairy Poltergeists

Do fairies exist? Poltergeists certainly do, and within fairy‑infested regions a noisy, violent spirit is often identified as an angry fairy. While many poltergeists are notorious for wreaking havoc, numerous accounts describe them leaving gifts or performing household chores—perfectly mirroring the dual nature of fairies, who can swing from benevolent to malevolent in an instant.

Renowned fairy scholar Katharine Briggs recounted a childhood friend who visited the elderly ladies of Denton Hall near Newcastle in the 1890s. The women spoke of a “silkie” (what Briggs termed a Northumbrian brownie) that both complicated servant management and assisted with chores like cleaning grates and laying fires. Described as draped in grey silk, the silkie would appear on the stairs. During World War II, the friend returned to find the new occupants never saw the silkie but heard persistent banging that drove a son to flee his room. A recent staff member confirmed the hall remains modestly haunted today.

5 Fairy Landscapes

In Ireland, the very countryside bears the imprint of fairy presence. Fairy forts or hills dotted the landscape, and in 1911‑12 Athlone councillors refused to sell a house built beside a local fairy hill. Fairy trees—often thorny—were equally sacred; roads had to bend around them. A drunken farmer in County Antrim who felled such a tree awoke the next morning with his head turned backward, a cautionary tale of disrespect.

The most perilous of all were fairy paths, invisible routes traversed daily by the “good people.” Unwitting homeowners sometimes discovered that part of their house lay across such a path, prompting a ritual of opening back and front doors at the prescribed hour to allow the fairies to pass unseen. One dramatic incident involved Paddy Baine and his young bride, who endured violent hammering that threatened to collapse a wall. Wisewoman Mairead ni Heine explained that a corner of the house obstructed the fairies’ progress; a stonemason trimmed the offending corner, restoring peace.

4 Changelings

The notion of a “changeling”—a fairy‑substituted child—was far from whimsical folklore. Throughout the 19th century, parents convinced their infant had been swapped by fairies would subject the alleged changeling to brutal treatments hoping the true child would be returned. Methods ranged from immersing the child in poisonous foxglove extracts, exposing them to freezing weather, laying them on scorching shovels, or abandoning them at the tide’s edge. Many infants perished.

Researcher Susan Schoon Eberly demonstrated that many of these “changeling” cases involved medical conditions such as phenylketonuria (PKU), a metabolic disorder not obvious at birth. Families often found their baby appearing unusually wrinkled, unusually hungry, and lacking speech—symptoms that, in a superstitious context, seemed to confirm fairy interference. While some parents rationalised the belief as a way to explain the inexplicable, others may have subconsciously sought to rid themselves of a demanding, insatiable child.

3 Bridget Cleary

Most changeling tragedies involved infants, yet the 1895 case of Bridget Cleary stands out for its horrifying adult dimension. Michael Cleary of Ballyvadlea, Tipperary, convinced his fever‑stricken wife Bridget was a fairy. Influenced by local believer Jack Dunne, Michael subjected Bridget—then 26—to degrading “fairy tests”: stripping, manhandling, threats, force‑feeding, and even a chamber pot hurled at her. He allegedly proclaimed, “She is not my wife… she is two inches taller than my wife.”

On March 15, as Michael threatened Bridget with a hot stick, her clothes ignited. He doused her with lamp oil, burning her to death. Her hastily buried body sparked a media frenzy in England, portrayed as a “medieval witch burning” that allegedly proved Irish incapability of self‑governance. Neighbours jeered at his trial; though he could have faced the gallows, the jury deemed him manslaughter‑guilty—perhaps recognizing his genuine belief in Bridget’s fairy status. He received a 20‑year sentence and later emigrated to Canada.

2 Fairy Animals

Beyond the human realm, the fairy world extended to a menagerie of uncanny creatures. In County Cavan, a farmer reported his chickens slain by “fairy foxes,” while in County Clare a rabbit hunter fled in terror upon realising his quarry were fairy‑born. Fairy dogs, however, could be benign. Welsh variants were white with red ears; Manx counterparts wore white coats and red hats. In 1899 on Scotland’s Lewis island, a bitter dispute erupted over a fairy dog’s tooth: Kate MacCaskill threatened neighbor Mrs Mackay, vowing to drop the tooth down her chimney, igniting the house.

Seals also entered fairy lore. Some traditions held that during the original fall of the angels, Lucifer’s minions transformed into fairies of air, earth, and water. The selkie myth tells of seal women who became human wives, provided the man concealed their seal skins. In 1839, seal‑hunting was banned along County Mayo’s coast after two boys claimed a white seal, while they were killing seals in a cave, rose and pleaded, “Spare your old grandfather, Daniel O’Dowd!” The seal argued it was condemned to wander nightly as atonement for past sins.

1 Biddy Early

“Biddy Early beat all women. No one could touch her.” Born in 1798 and orphaned early, Biddy Early rose to fame as Ireland’s most celebrated folk healer and “Fairy Doctor.” While many attributed her powers to fairy contacts, the exact source remains mysterious. An astute herbalist, Biddy treated countless ailments, accepting only gifts of meat and whiskey. When a complaint exceeded her abilities, she would admit it openly.

She also displayed clairvoyance. When affluent visitors offered cheap whiskey, she chastised them for hiding a pricier bottle in their luggage. She “converted” a hostile priest by revealing intimate details of his life, and once paralyzed a priest and his horse on a bridge, forcing the man to beg a passerby for Biddy’s release. Rumour has it that a member of the English royal family travelled to County Clare solely to consult her. After decades of ecclesiastical opposition, twenty‑seven priests attended her funeral in 1874.

Top 10 Curious Encounters With Fairies

About The Author: Richard Sugg is the author of thirteen books, including Fairies: A Dangerous History (Reaktion, 2018), Mummies, Cannibals and Vampires (3rd ed., 2020), The Smoke of the Soul (2nd ed., 2020), Bloodlust (2020) and Ride Your Horse Through the Chocolate Sauce! His work has appeared in The Guardian, BBC History, The Lancet, The Daily Telegraph, Der Spiegel, The New Yorker, and on international radio and television. You can watch him discussing fairies here, at London’s Conway Hall in November 2019, and follow his updates on Instagram and Twitter.