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Arthur Conan Doyle

The Cottingley Fairies

November 8, 2026November 6, 2026 by Tommy Hayes
Cottingley Beck, the stream in Yorkshire where Elsie Wright and Frances Griffiths claimed to have seen the fairies

About 5 min readIn 1917, two young cousins in Yorkshire photographed what appeared to be fairies in their garden — and fooled the creator of Sherlock Holmes. More than sixty years later, they admitted the photographs were faked with cardboard cutouts and hatpins.

Categories Explained at Last Tags 1917, Arthur Conan Doyle, Cottingley Fairies, Explained, photography hoax, Yorkshire Leave a comment

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Mysteries is an archive of phenomena that still lack a settled explanation. We tell these stories with evidence first: what was seen, what was recorded, what can be checked, and what remains unknown.

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