There are a number of variations on this experience and most of the reports of the phenomena are from some time ago, giving them the feel of historical experience by less-technologically advanced people than ourselves.
However, a recent experience turned up in the last year, was well-presented and documented and seemed (on first look) genuine and truthful. The report came from online news site, Dublin Live, although the location involved seemed to be somewhere in Co. Meath.
Link to original Dublin Live article
Supposedly, the lady in question had been taking part in a work-based challenge to improve health by getting her daily step tally up and had planned a walk in a nearby wooded area. She had come to a fork in the path and had to make a decision as to which route she would take. Deciding on the left turn, though it was in some regard, less attractive, she passed between to similar trees and walked onward. After, a little time she realised the path she had taken was not taking her where she expected and she tried to change route to avoid going into a deeper, more difficult and overgrown route. It was then she found herself disoriented and confused, so she took out her phone to consult her map app, but found there was no phone signal available.
Having no other option but trial and error she tried various paths to reorient herself but finding herself again on a route which was becoming increasingly overgrown she stopped and heard a light, high pitched, woman’s voice calling “over here”. Originally, thinking the woman was speaking to children she couldn’t see, she wasn’t initially bothered but when a laugh followed the call she said “the hairs stood up on the back of my neck”, and she became increasingly unsettled. A second call from the other side of her confirmed her feelings of unease and she started to feel unnerved and scared.
Remembering old advice she had been told, she took off her t-shirt, turned it inside out and put it on again. She then turned back, and almost instantly found herself back near the two similar trees again, but came upon them much more quickly than expected. On reaching them she noticed that the sounds which had been absent returned at that point; birdsong, distant sounds of other people, the general background noise of the woods, which even on a quiet, still day, are present.
On returning to her car she checked her steps on her FitBit, having started out with 8000 steps, she found that she had added a further 10000 – considerably more than she would have expected given the length of time and supposed distance travelled.
The lady, while aware of the faerie-lore in general, is not from a family background given to those beliefs and had no prior inkling of them. Her posting of the incident on Twitter / X / (whatever…) seemed to supply her with a number of people who seem to have had similar experiences. They are well-known in Irish folklore and fireside yarns as tramping on a ‘stray sod’, a clump of turf that has been blessed or bewitched by the faeries, but it is a surprising thing to see them currently stated as being a more frequent modern occurrence, and also gratifying to know that people are still willing to talk about them with some degree of openness.
Maurice Milligan / September 2023