Around the ruins of St Mary's Abbey at Kilkeel the visitor found numerous forths, clusters of old white thorn bushes that were objects of superstitious regard even then. The white thorn was sacred to the wee people, or fairies, and though often in the way and well suited to parts of boat building, it was never used or disturbed. No fisherman would go to sea in a boat built with it, and a farmer believed either he or his cattle would die. When an offence against the white thorn had been committed and the curse lay on the culprits, it was customary to burn a living chicken as an offering to the wee people.
The writer's informant added that there were old people who maintained they had danced to fairy music under these forths in the summer twilight of their golden age.
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