Archive of Correspondence
Selected letters and messages received since 1999. The archive receives some tens of items in a typical year — at the site's busiest, in 2009, there were 143, of which 61 arrived in March — and replies to everything, though not quickly; email is read in batches and answered in order. Nearly all correspondence is filed unpublished. A letter appears on this page only where it led to a correction or amendment of the site, where it answers a question the archive is asked repeatedly, or where it shows how a class of report is handled — and in every case with the writer's consent or with identifying details removed. Names are withheld or reduced to initials unless the writer asked to be named.
Received October 1999 — name withheld, Warwickshire
Dear Sir,
There is no leprechaun in our shed. Please remove Warwickshire from your map.
ARCHIVE REPLY
Thank you for your letter. The Warwickshire marker was placed in error and has been removed. We are happy to confirm for your records that the archive holds no material concerning your shed.
Received November 1999 — R. H., Cumbria
Your home page took nine minutes to load and the shamrock at the top arrived last. I mention this in a spirit of helpfulness.
ARCHIVE REPLY
Received in that spirit, and acted on: the photographs have been reduced and the shamrock now travels earlier in the page. The site currently transfers in under four minutes on a good line. We would be interested to hear whether the improvement reaches Cumbria.
Received March 2001 — P.
Dear Leprechauns UK,
Thank you for correcting the diagram. The previous buckle orientation was
irresponsible.
ARCHIVE REPLY
Noted with thanks. The archive considers the matter closed.
Received June 2003 — Mrs. E., Wiltshire
A teaspoon belonging to my mother has moved approximately four inches between Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning. Nobody in the house will account for it. I enclose a drawing of the kitchen.
ARCHIVE REPLY
Thank you for the drawing, which is filed. Spoon displacements of under five inches fall within the tolerance the archive allows for households operating normally (see the Domestic type in the identification guide). The file will be reopened on any recurrence. To date there has been none.
Received August 2004 — name withheld
Is the figure at the end of my garden a leprechaun? He is there every day, does not move, and holds a small windmill.
ARCHIVE REPLY
On the details given, the figure is a Decorative Leprechaun (see the identification guide), which is to say, an ornament. The daily attendance and the windmill are both characteristic. No discredit attaches to the enquiry; the type exists precisely because the question keeps being asked.
Received May 2005 — B. Lock
Subject: Figure on allotment fence
I think I saw a small person climbing up these fences earlier, shortly before
the allotments closed. They appeared to be in a hurry. How strange... I could
not see what they were wearing, and I do not understand why this has been
entered as a visual identification.
ARCHIVE REPLY
Thank you. The account has been refiled as an unclassified observation, as no identifying characteristics were reported. The original filing was an error of the archive's, not of the observer's, and we are grateful for the care taken on this point, which is rarer than it should be.
Received May 2005 — B. Locke
I saw two small figuers running along the same fences shouting something about a competition. I could not say what kind of competition. I do not understand people who keep allotments at all
ARCHIVE REPLY
Thank you. Spelling and punctuation retained as received, per archive practice. Both fence accounts are held on the same file. The archive notes for that file that the two correspondents are, on the evidence of the postmarks, different people, and that no further comment is required at this time.
Received February 2007 — John C.
I count SIX individuals in the photograph in total. The caption presently says "approximately five."
ARCHIVE REPLY
The sixth figure is the photographer's reflection. The caption has not been changed.
Received March 2008 — Mrs. K., Surrey
My sister in Massachusetts tells me that her children build leprechaun traps at school for St Patrick's Day, and that overnight the leprechaun springs the trap, escapes, and leaves chocolate coins and green glitter behind. My children (7 and 9) would now like to build one. Do you have plans, or guidance on siting? And what ought we to do with it if it works?
ARCHIVE REPLY
Thank you for your letter, which we have read several times. The practice you describe was not known to this archive, and we can find no British or Irish source for it; so far as we can establish it is American, and comes from the schools. We would make three observations. First, the archive's guidance is against detaining, or attempting to detain, any figure, and we cannot recommend the building of traps. Secondly, no trap of any design has ever, to our knowledge, been recorded as catching anything. Thirdly, we were unable to understand from your account how the coins and the glitter come to be in the trap, given that the trap is also described as empty. It is possible we have misunderstood the mechanism, and if your sister is able to clarify this point we would be glad to hear from her. On your final question we are unable to advise.
Received April 2008 — Mrs. K., Surrey
Thank you for your reply. I asked my sister. She says the parents put the coins and glitter in the trap after the children are asleep, and tell the children the leprechaun escaped. The children know this, I think, or half-know it. There is no leprechaun.
ARCHIVE REPLY
Thank you for the clarification, which resolves the mechanism. We have amended our note accordingly: the trap is not an attempt to catch a leprechaun, but a way for a family to tell a story about having nearly caught one. The archive holds nothing comparable in the British record, and has filed the correspondence under overseas traditions, a heading created for the purpose. We are grateful to your sister. On the final point in your letter the archive takes no position, as with all such statements; see the disclaimer on the sightings page.
Received September 2008 — T. R., Norfolk
What is your annual figure for leprechaun reports? I require it for a talk I am giving on Thursday.
ARCHIVE REPLY
There is no defensible annual figure, for the reasons set out on the sightings page, which we enclose. We recognise this is inconvenient for the talk, but we are not willing to publish a figure the material does not support.
Received April 2009 — C. M.
Your map gives the western boundary of the search area as 3.4 kilometres. I have been trying to check this, but I keep getting different numbers depending on how small a measuring stick I use. Please state which stick was used.
ARCHIVE REPLY
The figure describes the straight-line distance between the two reference markers. It is not a measurement of the boundary itself, which we agree resists the treatment you describe, and which we would gently discourage you from pursuing with sticks shorter than are useful for walking. The map key has been amended.
Received April 2009 — P.
Actually, the structure in photograph 4 isn't a ring—if you look closely, it turns out to be an tetracontagon. I count forty straight sections.
ARCHIVE REPLY
"Ring" is retained as the conventional archaeological description and is not a geometric classification. The photograph will not be recaptioned.
Received January 2010 — D. W., Merseyside (published at the writer's request)
I was one of the children at Jubilee Park in 1964. I did not see anything, but I have never forgotten looking. Thank you for writing it up properly. Most accounts make us sound silly.
ARCHIVE REPLY
Thank you. Letters like yours are the reason the file is maintained. The archive's view, for what it is worth, is that several thousand children looking carefully at a bowling green is not a silly event but a documented one.
Received February 2020 — name and address supplied
I have reviewed your archive. It is pretty much impossible to see a leprechaun. I estimate there are 0 leprechaun sightings every year
ARCHIVE REPLY
Thank you. The estimate has been filed. The archive's records contain several years in which the figure was not zero.
Received March 2025 — K., no county given
Why is Leprechauns UK not on social media? I looked for you everywhere.
ARCHIVE REPLY
The archive has no plans in this direction. The subject does not produce enough material to support regular posting, and we would not wish to pad it. The website has been at this address since 2019 and will remain here.
Items received 2011–2019 are held offline pending restoration.