In Ireland, people who had illnesses or other misfortune, were said to live in houses that were "in the way" or in a "contrary place", obstructing a fairy path. An example is that of a family in which four children sickened and died, leaving the doctors baffled. The fifth child sickened and was near death, only to make a sudden and full recovery. The father told the doctor that he had consulted a wise woman who informed him that his new house extension blocked a fairy path between two fairy forts, whereupon he demolished it and his child became healthy again.