When Elves & Fairies Lived Among Us

February 26, 2026·43 min·3 clips

In 1692 Scotland, a minister died after stepping into the dark—did the fairies take him for revealing their secrets?

The threshold is Aberfoyle. The host starts in the 17th-century village where Scotland's lowlands give way to the Highlands, among rivers, forest streams, and beliefs that refused to go quietly. Robert Kirk steps into the dark. He is a clergyman and scholar, not a sorcerer or wandering mystic, which makes him a sharper way into the question of what fairy belief meant to farmers, villagers, and educated people. The official story is that he died. The glen has a stranger version, and that version matters because it shows a world where fairy abduction could still be imagined as an explanation. The conversation then opens out. When did attitudes change, especially for ordinary people? The disputed idea of the great disenchantment comes up, but the guest is wary of tidy progress stories. Magic and science were not sealed off from each other. They could sit inside the same historical moment, sometimes inside the same mind. Newton is the awkward example. His alchemical interests make it hard to say reason simply marched in and cleared the old beliefs away. The shift sounds slower than that. By the 18th century, the guest suggests, fairy belief was becoming more private, less fit for public discourse, and harder to admit aloud. Even the aside about politicians and fairy belief lands as dry humour, because public credibility has rules. The episode asks for historical sympathy: to hear Robert Kirk's world without pretending its boundaries match ours.

As heard by us

A haunted Scottish story that becomes a sharper argument about belief, doubt, and history.

Not Just the Tudors follows Robert Kirk into Aberfoyle, where the village, the dark, and old beliefs frame a story about second sight, spirits, and fairies that seem to sit just beyond official certainty.

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Why you'd press play

A Scottish story about Robert Kirk, the Aberfoyle minister whose death was said by locals to be the fairies' doing, and that opens into a broader debate about belief and science.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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