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‘I [US national] was living with friends at the time in ***, Ireland at *** House. I would go for walks every morning and would take a very specific route around the property (down the drive, through the woods, over a fence, then into the fields). I’d started following this route because when I took it exactly right, the fields would feel magical and be hushed and covered in soft mist no matter the weather. If I took a different route going straight for the fields, there’d be no magic – just empty fields filled with noise from surrounding roads and the sheep farm nearby. One morning, I took the normal route, climbed over the fence, into the field covered in mist that was thicker than normal, and as I walked across the field, suddenly, about three feet in front of me, a tiny person, about eighteen inches high, jumped up off the ground and took off into the mist. It happened so fast, I’m not even sure what it looked like beyond a tiny skinny human with very white skin wearing a green tunic. I got the impression it was male, but I don’t know why I thought that. I felt frightened, not haunted-house terrified, but shocked and bewildered. I checked the ground where the being had jumped up and the field grass was pressed down in an oval shape. Then I turned and ran back to the house. I didn’t go out for walks again for a few weeks and then I started staying on the opposite side of the property or in the woods. I think because I knew that if I accepted what I’d seen as real, then my whole concept of the world would have to shift. I tried to bring it up with the property gardener one day, mentioning that I thought I’d seen something strange in the far field, and he shushed me ‘Shh, shhh. We don’t speak of the Little People, yeah? We don’t speak of the Little Men.’ And that was it.’ ‘About eighteen inches tall, humanoid, tiny and skinny, very pale skin.’ ‘The meaning of the house I was living in, ***, is Fort of the Fairies, so possibly someone had seen fairies there at some point in its history, but they didn’t tell me about it.’ Why fairies? ‘Because of how the being looked. It looked very Earth-ish and blended in – I think if it hadn’t moved, I would have stepped on it. I think a ghost would be incorporeal, an angel would be like bright light, and an alien would be very bizarre or super-tech looking.’ Fairies are ‘elemental spirits of the Earth.’