Fairies are very tricky and elusive creatures. They don’t want just anyone to stumble across their home. However, I will let you in on the secret to finding the Fairy House in Gatlinburg, TN.
Our kids always complain when it comes to hiking. They don’t want to go. They are tired of walking. So, we used the magic of finding the Fairy House to entice them to go on a hike. And then two hours later we still hadn’t found it so I started googling.
“Where is the Fairy House in Gatlinburg, TN”, “How do you find the Fairy House”, “What is the location of the Fairy House”. The results that I received were very vague and left us confused and still searching. We actually drove away after hiking for about 3 hours with a 4, 7, and 10 year old. As we were driving away disappointed, I finally found clear directions on how to find the Fairy House and we headed back.
This post is going to give you very clear directions on how to find the Fairy House so you don’t have to wander around for hours as we did.
Directions to the Fairy House
The Fairy House is off the Twin Creeks Trail. Park at Mynatt Park and walk toward the trailhead. Once you hit pavement (Twin Creeks Research Lab Access), take the paved road toward the right. You will come to the office of Discover Life in America that has a blue sign in front of it.
The sign will direct you to continue to the left around the building and to follow the fence line behind the building into the woods. Just look up and you will see it! The Fairy House! It’s that easy!
Twin Creeks Trail
The Fairy House is off of the Twin Creeks Trail. The entire trail is a 4.5 mile out and back hike that has an easy rating. The northern trailhead lies near the park at the edge of Gatlinburg. The Noah “Bud” Ogle Place nature trail makes up the southern end where you can explore a few historical structures and involves a bit more hiking than the rest of the trail.
You might want to consider waterproof shoes as there are several places were the trail crosses water. Some of these crossings include bridges while others involve hopping across on rocks and/or logs.
Twin Creeks Trail does not boast the views or waterfalls that many of the trails in the Great Smoky Mountains do. However, it is worth visiting if you plan to make a stop at the Fairy House, are looking for a trail that’s more accessible from Gatlinburg, or boasts an easy rating.
History of the Fairy House
Shh, don’t tell the kids this but fairies don’t actually live there. The Fairy House was constructed as a spring house and part of the Voorheis Estate.
Spring houses were a single room structure built over a natural spring. Spring houses served two purposes. They kept the water clean of debris and also due to the cold temperature of the mountain spring water they provided refrigerated storage for foods that would otherwise spoil.
The spring house was renamed the Fairy House or House of the Fairies because over the years the moss overtook the stone building making it look like a magical house lost to time.
The Voorheis Estate
Louis E. Voorheis was a business man from Cinncinati, OH. He purchased and developed 38 acres of land from 1928-1944 in the Twin Creeks Orchard with the intentions to use it as a refuge from the crowds. Eventually, he deeded the land to the National Park Service and they took over full management of the property (1). The estate today consists of the main house, guest cabins, a horse barn, and an apple barn as well as remnants of stone walls and other landscape features designed by Voorheis.
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