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What nobody tells you

Fairy forts: why nobody cuts the tree

There are tens of thousands of fairy forts in fields all over Ireland. Every farmer knows where theirs is. And nobody, nobody, cuts the tree.

By Rickie · Discover Alone
A fairy fort near Carrigcleena, County Cork. Picture: Wikimedia Commons

The ring in the field

You've driven past hundreds of them. A round bank in a field, a ring of bushes, an old thorn tree standing on its own.

Most were farms and homesteads over a thousand years ago. Over time they became the fairies' places.

Leave it alone

Ask any farmer. You plough around it. You don't cut the tree. You don't take a stone from it.

Plenty of people who'd laugh at fairies still won't touch one. That tells you something about how deep it goes.

Why go and see one

Because it's a thousand years of history sitting in a field, and nobody has turned it into a gift shop.

Stand in the middle of one on a quiet evening and you'll understand why people were careful.

There's one near you

There are so many that you almost certainly have one within a few miles. Open the map and look for the forts near you.

Ask before you cross anybody's land, close the gates, and don't touch the tree.

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