Folklore & legend

The Fairy Builders of Faldouet

Also known as: La Pouquelaye de Faldouet (fairy tradition)

La Pouquelaye de Faldouet, St Martin

The dolmen at Faldouet, a short walk inland from Gorey, is one of Jersey's most impressive prehistoric monuments: a long stone passage opening into a chamber, with a huge capstone, on a rise with views towards the French coast.

For islanders it was always La Pouquelaye de Faldouet, and the road beside it is La Rue de la Pouclée. Pouquelaye is the Channel Island word for these monuments, and since at least the 1840s it has been taken to mean a fairy place. Francesca Bihet, summarising Jersey fairy lore for Magical Folk (2017), records that the little people were supposed to have built both the pouquelaye at First Tower and the one at Faldouet, at the east end of the island. The Jersey Evening Post's 2021 guide to island fairy lore also lists Faldouet among its fairy places.

That is the extent of the tradition: a belief that the stones were not raised by human hands. No story of an encounter at Faldouet has come down to us in the sources we have found. Readers who want the archaeology should see the separate entry for the monument.

The dolmen is signposted off La Rue de la Pouclée and is free to visit.
Evidence
Long-standing local tradition
Access
Open ground
Location
49.203, -2.027 (Sited to the building or field)

Sources: Francesca Bihet, "Pouque and the Faiteaux: The Channel Islands", in Magical Folk: British and Irish Fairies 500 AD to the Present (Gibson Square, 2017), University of Chichester repository [other]; Jersey Evening Post, "A guide to Jersey's fairy folklore" (30 March 2021) [other]

View on the map →

Comments

Loading…