Benbulbin and the Fairy Door
On the flat-topped mountain of Benbulbin, folklore says, there's a door in the cliff that opens at night, and the fairy host rides out.
What was reported
Benbulbin is a dramatic mountain in County Sligo, with a flat top and steep, ribbed cliffs. In Irish myth, it's where the hero Diarmuid, fleeing with Gráinne, was killed by an enchanted boar, the death that Fionn mac Cumhaill had wished for him.
Folklore says that a white square on the cliff is a door to fairyland, which opens at night to let the fairy host ride out across the land, and those who see it shouldn't follow.
Explanations offered
The mountain is a remnant of a limestone plateau shaped by glaciers. The poet W. B. Yeats loved the Sligo landscape and its fairy lore, and is buried at Drumcliff churchyard under Benbulbin, where his epitaph is carved.
- When
- Told for centuries
- Where
- Benbulbin, County Sligo, Ireland
- Witnesses
- Irish folklore and the poet W. B. Yeats
- Status
- Legend
Famous cases are real, widely reported events. Each file sets out what witnesses said and the explanations that have been offered, without taking a side.
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