Someone made a map of Toronto's hidden fairy doors

Stumbling upon a magical fairy door hidden in the woods or tucked into a stone wall outside a home can be an enchanting surprise.

A Toronto resident wants to help people find those tiny, mysterious doors across the city.

The Fairy Door Map is a work-in-progress, tracking the doors as they impishly appear and disappear throughout the city.

Blue pins on the map are from 2020 and may not be still around, but recently the map has been festooned with pink pins, which are more recently confirmed door sightings.

Map creator Shana Tilbrook created the map when her daughter started noticing the doors around Seaton Village.

"Every day I would take my daughter out to look for fairy doors," she says. 

It was a fun activity for her and her daughter. She thought other parents might also be looking for something to do with their children during the various phases of lockdown so she created the map and posted it on Facebook.

Steps lead to a fairy door in a stone wall on Edna Avenue. 

The doors are a common sight in the United Kingdom. There is also a fairy door trail in Ireland, and a tree in Saint Anne's Park in Dublin is covered in fairy doors.

They started to appear in North America in the 1990s. Ann Arbour, Michigan is particularly well-known for them after an art installation in 1993.

The Toronto Fairy Door Map has been viewed more than 22,000 times, and in a post, Tilbrook asked for help updating it.

Tilbrook welcomes any new door sightings and people can email her at shana.tilbrook@gmail.com with a location.