A Book Review of Guidebook to Ancient Sites

Paul Devereux’s Fairy Paths & Spirit Roads has been reissued under the name of Spirit Roads, but it is still the same book. The author has created a basic field guide to some of the most ancient routes used by ancient peoples throughout the world. In aboriginal Australia, these routes are called songlines, whereas in northwestern Europe and the UK, they are typically called (and used as) death roads, while in Ireland they are referred to as fairy paths. Each of these classes of pathways has a slightly different purpose, but they are all similar in that they provide an alternate method of traversing the geographical landscape, as seen with the spiritual, versus the physical, eyes.

The author visits several continents and many countries (Britain, Germany, Ireland, Netherlands, Australia, Costa Rica, Mexico, and the USA) to traverse, photograph, and explain the ancient meaning behind the sacred roadways. In many cases, he notes that the oral folklore of many of these places has been lost in the last half-century or so, and ruefully acknowledges he is 30 to 40 years too late to provide a truly comprehensive guidebook and explication of the Spirit Roads.

Regardless of the limitations Devereux encountered, he has put together a magical and inspiring book, one wonderfully grounded in the actual local folklore of the places. He has interviewed many long-time, typically quite old residents of the localities he visited, and used this information to support his own historical research.

This book is highly recommended for travelers and armchair enthusiasts of sacred sites, or of folkloric history in general. After reading this book, one may be tempted to ask whether the fairy paths are real, and whether their spiritual nature is somehow tangible. Since encountering this book last winter, I made it a point to visit one of the locales in northwestern Ireland that Devereux describes.

As part of a hiking trail through this part of the country, I visited a small wood where there are many megalithic tombs and other ancient stone monuments. Though I've done a bit of hiking through old forests, I have never encountered a place quite like this. In contrast to the green and lush landscape surrounding the wood, nothing grew on the ground under the trees, and the trees themselves were largely devoid of foliage, except for the very tops. The wood itself was completely, eerily silent. No birds, no animals, not a leaf falling from the trees, no sign of life whatsoever. Though we were completely silent, I got the distinct sense that something was “checking us out,” and not altogether in a friendly way. I suspect that other travelers to such sites may have a similar experience, as these roads mark places where the human and spirit worlds intersect. Humans having encroached on these otherworldly realms as much as they have, there is reason for these border places to be guarded ever more jealously.

Purchase Spirit Roads: An Exploration of Otherwordly Routes
at Amazon.com.

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