Faerie Tree in Galway Meadow

Faerie Tree in Galway Meadow

A lone tree basks in the noon-day Irish Spring sun in a meadow in County Galway, Ireland. This artwork is a digital interpretation of one of my original images.

When you see a single tree left standing in a meadow, it’s likely a “Faerie Tree” — home to the legendary nature spirits, known to wreak havoc on anyone who destroys their dwellings.

With more than 7,500 varieties of trees in Ireland, Celtic myths and legends are woven around most of them.

While the Thorn tree is generally considered the “official” fairy tree, the trio of Oak, Ash and Thorn trees were all believed to have special powers in Celtic lore.

In local tradition, cutting down a fairy tree risks attracting bad luck to your doorstep. These beliefs were so powerful that many would endure a cold winter without firewood rather than risk harvesting a suspected fairy tree.

In contemporary times, the belief in fairy trees has prompted highways to be re-routed. Even the demise of the once-prosperous DeLorean Motor Car Co. has been attributed to the destruction of a suspected fairy tree during the building of its plant in Northern Ireland.