Encounter Atlas
Pixies (or piskies in Cornwall) are the little people of England's West Country, especially the moors of Cornwall and Devon. They are said to live in stone circles, barrows and caves, and to dance and wrestle through the night. The older stories describe them in ragged clothes; the pointed ears, green suits and pointy hats are Victorian additions.
Their best-known trick is being 'pixy-led': a walker loses the way on a familiar path and wanders in circles until they turn their coat inside out. Pixies also ride moorland ponies at night, leaving knots in their manes, and may help a poor widow with her housework.
Ottery St Mary in East Devon has a Pixie Day each June, re-enacting a legend that pixies were banished to a cave called the Pixies' Parlour. Samuel Taylor Coleridge, born in the town, wrote 'Songs of the Pixies' after visiting the cave in 1793. By 1824 the Cornish writer Samuel Drew was already saying that 'the age of pixies, like that of chivalry, is gone.'
What witnesses report
- Getting lost on a path you know well
- Tangled knots in a pony's mane
- Laughter or music on the moor at night
- Small figures in ragged clothes
Famous cases
- 1793Coleridge visits the Pixies' Parlour and writes Songs of the Pixies
Ottery St Mary, England - 1853Earliest Three Little Pigs tale, with pixies instead of pigs
Dartmoor, England
Seen the Pixies?
Tell us what happened. Every report is read by a person before it goes on the map, and you can stay anonymous.
