Do You Really Want to Visit a Fairy Hill?

On the Dangers of Knowes, Knolls, Barrows and Hollow Hills

A few years ago, I visited Ireland for the first time. It was so magical and beautiful I almost couldn’t handle it. The hills were impossibly green, grass and heather rolling beneath wispy clouds that looked like giant hats. I remember gazing at those hills and feeling a kind of ache. I wanted to melt into them, become one with them, in a way, and discover ... I don’t know what. Another world, maybe? A place more magical and beautiful than this one? Or maybe something else …

Photos I Took in Ireland

My years of studying fairy lore have taught me to be wary of beautiful things that make you ache for them and tempt you to leave your own life behind. I have read too many tales of those who stepped into a ring of mushrooms or stones and were never the same again. Of those who wandered into a hollow hill and returned centuries later, only to find that their friends and loved ones were long dead. Of those who were charmed by underground music or some beautiful stranger and never came back at all.

Sometimes I think the fairies are like dewdrops on a spider web or the light dangling from an angler fish …

Something beautiful that draws you in and then …

Photo #1 by Egor Kamelev, #2 Still from Finding Nemo

But what dwells under those hollow hills, anyway?

According to the lore of Ireland and the British Isles: the dead. Historically, many of these “fairy hills” were, in fact, burial mounds, ancient tombs dating back thousands of years. The barrows, the knolls, the knowes of these isles were the resting places of ancient bards and warrior kings, those whose voices had been forever silenced in our world but who might perhaps speak and sing again in that other one.

High on the hill-top
The old King sits;
He is now so old and gray
He's nigh lost his wits.
With a bridge of white mist
Columbkill he crosses.
On his stately journeys
From Slieveleague to Rosses;
Or going up with music
On cold starry nights,
To sup with the Queen
Of the gay Northern Lights

~ William Allingham

It’s a lovely thought. That those hollow tombs turn into great halls when we’re not looking filled with golden goblets and silver harps, glittering feasts and spinning dancers. The people there lit from within, forever young, bound by strange customs and ancient laws that feel like riddles to us. A beautiful world, a magical world in which we all one day will reside.

But not today.

There’s a reason most old fairy lore warns us to stay away from those seemingly empty places. That world isn’t accessible to the living, not without paying a price most of us would rather not pay. Because a tomb isn’t a place to visit, it’s a place to stay. Forever.

So when you hear the siren call of the fairies from under those hollow hills, when you follow the flash of a willow-the-wisp into a dark cave, remember the spider and the anglerfish, the dangers that might lurk waiting behind those pretty lights and sounds.

We who are old, old and gay,
O so old!
Thousands of years, thousands of years.
If all were told:
Give to these children, new from the world,
Silence and love;
And the long dew-dropping hours of the night,
And the stars above
Give to these children, new from the world.
Rest far from men.
Is anything better, anything better?
Tell us it then:
Us who are old, old and gay,
O so old!
Thousands of years, thousands of years.
If all were told.

~ W. B. Yeats

This month’s video features seven allegedly true encounters from people who believe they stumbled across a fairy hill or sacred site, and came face to face with whatever it is that watches us and tempts us from within and underneath.

What do you think? Would you venture inside a fairy hill? Or would you prefer to keep your distance, just in case?

Let me know in the comments.

🍄 Featured Artist

This month’s featured artist is Rowan Ashborne and his book Lost Heir of Azrith. This book is a fantasy set in a fairy empire filled with elven healers and assassins. This is the first book of a series, so there is much more to read if you like it. Check it out here.

Until next time,

Your Scary Fairy Godmother