Malcolm M’Neill relates the following: ‘When I was about twenty years of age, a farmer in Layde hired a servant boy, named M’Alister, from Tievera. He and a neighbouring herd were in the habit of playing together on the braes, and they often came upon duck eggs in strange places, and they frequently broke the eggs for amusement. One day they found a woollen string with knots tied at intervals, evidently dropped by some fairy. M’Alister was taken suddenly ill from, as was supposed, meddling with the good folk, and he had to return to his home at Tievera. He grew worse and worse, all the time dwindling in stature. Malcolm M’Neill, when going to Ballycastle after this occurred, met Mrs. M’Alister, with the boy on her back, and he was shocked to see him so wizened and dwarfed; they were then on their way to Scotland. Brenan 61

Tommie M’Cormick relates, that about sixty years ago the mother of John M’Kendry, of Tircor, Cushleake, gave birth one evening to a child; the place where she lay was a loft over the kitchen fire. Two neighbouring girls looked after the infant, who was placed in a cradle at the side of the fire. The girls fell asleep, and when they awoke the infant had disappeared; an alarm was raised, and the squealing of an infant was heard. On going into the byre (which was oft the kitchen) the girls found the infant lying inside the byre on the ground, below the ‘group-hole.’ Brenan 61

In the locality where this fairy man said he resided, a farmer named Charlie M’Keown one evening met one of the wee folk on the bank of the river, near the brae, who asked him to build his new house three feet further to the east, and to face the door to the river, as, if he did not comply, he would annoy them (the fairies) by walking over them, and that it would be worse for him if he persisted. M’Keown replied, ‘are you a prophet?’ and he refused the request, upon which the fairy left. M’Keown built his house over the mearing, part on another estate, for which he had to pay rent. Ill luck followed, for he never prospered after this: he had to sell his farm and emigrate to America. Brenan 61

Kate M’Alister (Katie Billy), living at Agolagh, Cruach-na-muck, related the following, and said she was so frightened by the fairy apparition, thinking that the good people would carry her off and the two children, ‘that it anchored in her mind, she thought it so terrible.’ When living with her aunt, Nellie Patten, at Agolagh, forty years ago (she being then aged about twenty-five), when going one day on an errand to Knocknacarry, about eleven o’clock in the day, she met a fairy man on the road, dressed in bottle-green velvet coat, grey stockings, shoes tied with ribbon, and with a low Quaker-like hat; she wondered very much who it could be, as she had never seen him before, or met anyone like him. When she returned home she found this little man, with flaps in his cheeks, (as she expressed it) sitting on the side of the bed talking to her aunt: his feet did not touch the floor. ‘Don’t you know,’ he said, ‘that Captain Donnell O’Hara built a big house here, and called it Castle Donne. I was a little fellow at the time, 150 years ago, herding here with a farmer, named M’Creeve, i. e., a tree in Irish. The field above what is now the police barrack, is called Garragh-na Creeve, ‘The Garden with the Tree.’ ‘Where do you live?’ said my aunt, ‘that you know my name, and all about the neighbourhood?’ ‘I just stop on the other side of the river over against you,’ he replied, and when he left shortly after we followed, to see what road he would take, but he vanished. The place where he said he lived was a brae-side covered with blackthorns, and situated on the other side of the river Dun. When the fairy rose up to leave, he put his hand into his pocket, and drew out two herbs, which the herbalists in the country did not know were of any value as cures of diseases, viz.: ‘Glasswort,’ or ‘Kali,’ and ‘Dove’s-foot,’ or ‘Crane’s-bill;’ he held them in his hand, and said ‘they were worth their weight in gold:’ this he repeated twice, placing his hand in his pocket and producing the herbs each time. Brenan 60

A farmer named Brian McAuley, living at Tievera Fort, was tethering his horse one evening at the gloaming, when he heard a voice close to him saying, ‘Brian, Brian, take back your tether-stick, you are driving it through me.’ Brenan 59

Dan M’Killop (carpenter in Cushendun) relates, that about fifteen years ago, he and Hugh M’Kinley, of Knocknacarry, were on their way home from Ballymena; when they came to Cushendall, they chose the Layde road, the night being dark and wet. When they got as far as Patten’s Fall, Dan said to Hugh, ‘if we go by the short cut, we shall be covered with mud, as the lane is very much broken up.’ Hugh refused to take any road but the short one; and when they reached Douglas’s farm house the road was so bad that Dan took the front of the house, and Hugh the rere. When Dan passed the house he looked about him, expecting to meet Hugh again, he called, but there was no response. He observed, however, near the braes bright lights, like the gas lamps in a large town. He could not imagine what they were, knowing such to be impossible in that locality; he also believed he was in a plantation; the branches of the trees seemed quite close to him, as they swayed backward and forward. He stood still awhile, considering what course to take, and on drawing back a little, his heel struck something and he fell: he sat down, took his beads out of his pocket, and prayed for some time, considering he was on uncanny ground. He then rose, and fearing lest he might tumble over the braes (it being so dark), he made for the old road, and was conveyed by some unearthly means accross a mountain full of bog holes, ditches, and gulleys. He felt no obstacles in his way, the road seeming to be quite level, and he arrived at Pat Blayney’s house near the National School, Knocknacarry, Hugh M’Kinley said that when leaving Dan he heard a shrill whistle from the braes, which he answered, but Dan did not hear this. He arrived soon after Dan, coming down at the back of M’llreevy’s garden at Agolagh, nearly a quarter of a mile from where Dan M’Killop had regained the main road. Brenan 61-62

John M’Curdy, pensioner and Head Constable R.I.C., informed me that the following stories were true: about sixty years ago Harry Kane, Tievera, was roused one night by a sharp knocking at his door; he got out of bed and opened it. Two fairies appeared, who took him by the arms, one on each side, and led him to a carriage which they had waiting near. He was first driven to Red Bay, and shown where a road after wards was to be made, through the arch, which was then thought im possible. He was next driven to Cushendall, and shown where the new road, now called Mill street, was to be made, and he was also pointed out where the corn mill was to be built, the place then being merely mire and bog. He exclaimed, ‘Is it possible that a house could be built in such a place?’  and with that the enchantment broke, and he found himself standing outside his own door in his night shirt. Brenan 62

John Quinn, living at Cargan, Glenravel, many years ago, started late one evening for a nurse, who lived at Tiftarney, to attend his wife who was ill; but before he got to where the woman lived, he was carried off by unseen hands to Skerry Rocks, and there he was found lying at day break, in a deep crevasse, out of which he had to be drawn up by ropes. His boots were found at some distance in another crevasse. This is vouched for by Tom M’Clarty, now living in Cushendun. Brenan 63

John McDonnell, Altagore, has what he avers is an enchanted stone, Shanven, ‘an old woman’: it has been known for over two hundred years, and held in great veneration. It formerly belonged to a M’Kay, who held property in the neighbourhood. He kept it in his garden as long as he lived. Food was always left on this stone for the Grogan. At the time of M’Kay’s death this head or chief fairy, with blue coat, short pants, and long brown stockings and Highland bonnet, was seen, and then disappeared. The food given consisted of a piece of oatmeal cake and butter left on the stone, and this was always eaten during the nights. Once a mason, when building a gate-pier for M’Kay, took this stone, as it suited his purpose, and built it into the gate-pier, not knowing it to be enchanted; but in the morning the stone was found to have been removed, and placed back in the garden. M’Kay’s property was divided and sold at his death; he died from a pestilence that swept off hundreds at that time, and he was carried on a slide to his grave in Cross-skeen burying place, which was then first used for burial. Brenan 62-63

One evening during the summer months of 1884, the driver of the mail-cart from one of the towns in the island started on his rounds to collect the mail-bags from the surrounding district in the usual manner. He was due at his destination about half-past one o’clock in the morning, but did not arrive until nearly half-past five, when he appeared dreadfully scared and agitated. Being asked to account for his delay, he solemnly related that when about six miles from home he was beset by a troop of fairies, all of whom were particularly well-dressed in red suits and provided with lanterns. They stopped his horse, threw the mail-bags into the road, and danced around them in the well-known manner usual with fairies. The poor postman struggled with them in vain. No sooner did he succeed in replacing a bag than it was again immediately thrown out. This continued until the appearance of daylight, when the fairies apparently thought it was time for them to take their departure, which they eventually did, leaving the postman in a highly nervous and exhausted state. After resting a short time to collect his scattered wits, he succeeded in replacing the mails in his cart, and reached the end of his journey without further adventures. When I made acquaintance with him some little time afterwards, he did not strike me as a person likely to fall a victim to his own fertile imagination. As for doubts with respect to his condition at the time, it can only be said that he had left the post office that night in his usual condition of sobriety, and did not appear the worse for drink when he returned. Moreover, his character for sobriety and honesty was of many years’ standing. Lang, Taylor, Martin 186