Tobairín na Teampaill, Little Well of the Church, Durrus

You need sharp eyes to spot this tiny little well. It is literally cut out of the side of a bank, the area heavily overgrown with ferns. When I first visited in 2016, I cleared away a little of the undergrowth to reveal a small, rectangular, stone basin; the water fresh and clear.

I could find surprisingly little information about it. The Irish Tourism Association Survey for Cork (ITA) of the 1940s mentions it briefly and provides a name:

On the roadside some 300 yards from the churchyard is located a little well – Tobareen an Teampaill. The Well of the Church, as the name suggests, but it is not known if it ever attracted pilgrims.

And Breda McCarthy from Carrigboy School, Durrus collected this information from her father on April 28th 1938:

In Durrus cemetery about three miles from the village of Durrus there is a holy well which bears evidence of cures in former times, as many personal belongings have been left there. People do not go to pay rounds there at present but they probably did in former times. Rounds were paid at the grave of a certain Father Barnane who is buried there. This cemetery was once the site of an old monastery which would in all probability account for the well. (SFC:

Although it is recorded as a holy well it does not appear to have been the main focus for the rounds, which were traditionally paid on St John’s Eve, 23rd June. Instead, pilgrims seem to have flocked to the grave of a much loved parish priest who is buried in the attractive graveyard just a stroll up the road.

This is an interesting and probably ancient site, referred to by the Irish Tourism Association (ITA) as Durrus Abbey, possibly founded in the 6th century. Local information and folklore also suggests it’s the site of the earliest church in the area and may indeed have been a small monastery. It certainly has the feel of an early ecclesiastic enclosure with its circular walls nestling on a small hillock. It has a strange origin story described here by Chrissie Murnane of Gortacloona School, Bantry :

In the townland of Moulivard parish of Durrus Co. Cork is situated a graveyard. In it there are the ruins of an old church. The old people say that it was built in a night by the angels. There is a tradition in the locality that the ‘feet water’ should not be thrown out till morning. But an old woman who lived in the vicinity opened her door about midnight and threw out the water. She saw the lights in the distance and went towards them. The lights went out and the unknown builders stopped their work and never finished it in consequence of the action of the old woman in throwing out the ‘feet water’. (SFC: 002:0285)

The remains of this church, noted for its massive stonework, probably date from the 14th or 15th centuries, and although it is now an atmospheric ruin, it was in use until the mid 17th century. By 1699 the church was abandoned although the graveyard remained open. By the early 1800s it became the focal point for a particular pilgrimage. Father Denis Barnane, parish priest from 1790-1818, was much loved by the local community and renowned for his healing skills, for both humans and animals. He also is attributed with a solus, a sort of halo of light which surrounded him. He was less favoured by the established church but that doesn’t seem to have deterred him and he promised his parishioners to continue helping them even after his death and is recorded as saying :

I am dying, I’m in bad health and when I am dead I’ll cure the same as I do now.

After his death on 28th June 1834, his grave became a focal point of pilgrimage and was renowned for the cures that continued to be attributed to him. This extract from The Story of Kilcrohane by Frank O’ Mahony is part of an interview given to the author by Johnny Crowley who was born in 1915, and contains some interesting information:

Anyway, even in my family, we were very fearful of things called ‘fairy strokes’. My own grandfather, Willie, got two fairy strokes ( a mysterious affliction usually attributed to the fairies or Other Crowd) … On one particular evening, I’d say it was about the year 1874, Willie was fourteen years of age. He went down east to the bog … He had t e bag of turf got and hoisted it on his back . Straightaway he got the pain in his shin bone … The mother said there was only one answer to it, only to take him down to the old graveyard at Durrus where Father Barnane had been buried. Father Barnane was a Curate in Durrus . He had the gift of curing. It was going that far that the Bishop of the day … brought him to Cork and reprimanded him, He wouldn’t take no for an answer. The priest said, I am dying, I’m in bad health and when I am dead I’ll cure the same as I do now. On the 28th June every year (or St John’s Eve 23^rd/24^th June) that would be his anniversary.  And every year on that day, the graveyard  would be full of fathers and mothers bringing their complaints and children and all to that.  They used to come down from Cork, women to do the catering, boiling cans and giving out sandwiches and things like that to make a few bob.  You’d be there all night.  What you do is take a fist of earth from the grave, rub it to the sore, and that’s what Willie did. The next thing it all died away. Later Willie got another one on his arm, and he had that till he died . I remember the doctor saying to me that William was eighty-nine when he died. (The Story of Kilcrohane, Frank O Mahony, 2000).

Other cures were attributed to the grave as described by the ITA which records a miraculous cure concerning a crippled child who had never walked unaided. The family wished to go to America but the boy was refused entry seemingly on account of his disability. The mother took the boy to the grave of the priest on three successive Fridays and paid the rounds. By the third round he was able to cast his crutches aside and presumably made it to America.

The Survey also gives a helpful description of the rounds which began by the east gable of the church, continued clockwise around the church, coming over the stile at the west end, continuing over the stile at the east end until a full circle had been undertaken. No mention is made of the well at this point.

Although pilgrimages could be made at anytime, the main pattern day was St John’s Eve, 23rd June and even in the 1940s, the focus clearly remained on Father Barnane’s grave :

The grave, containing the remains of a parish priest named Father Barnane, is situated just outside the ruined walls of the church and here people perform rounds for various ailments on St John’s Eve and other times during the year. Many cures have resulted from pilgrimages to the grave. The custom is still practiced to a great extent. (ITA, Muintervarra, Cork)

Father Barnane was known to have enjoyed a wee drop and it was traditional to leave a bottle of whiskey on his grave. The grave was identified to me by a local man who remembered his mother frequently visiting and paying her respects. A little careful uncovering and a mass of broken glass and ceramic bottles was revealed scattered on top of the grave.

I was lucky enough to meet a young man who had a fascinating story to tell. When he was a young teenager he had a cow who had been seriously ill for 29 days. Having tried everything else, he visited the grave as the old folks used to do, and poured some whiskey over it. He then took a scoop of earth (remember how Johnny Crowley had referred to taking a fist of earth for the cure) and took that back to the sick cow, rubbed it on it and the cow was cured. How interesting to hear this practice is still occasionally carried out. This is not unique, at At another Well of the Church, Tobar a’Teampeall in Aghinagh not far from Carrigadrohid, earth from the grave of  Father John O’Callaghan was mixed with water from the nearby holy well and swallowed for internal ailments, or rubbed externally, the pilgrim having first completed a very complicated round.

Not only was Father Barnane’s grave visited, but two relics, presumably belonging to the priest, were also described in the ITA as being part of the round. A skull and shinbone, were kept inside the church which pilgrims touched as they completed the rounds. The same informant described how his father, when completing the round, would place the fragment on his forehead, bone on bone. He wondered if sometime people took small chips from the fragment to bring them luck as he remembered it being much bigger.

Today just a poignant fragment of a skull remains, tucked into a bullaun stone alongside many other offerings – a rosary, coins, statues, a small whiskey bottle.  

Devotion to a priest’s grave is not unusual and other examples I have encountered can be seen in Stouke graveyard near Ballydehob where rounds are also paid on St St John’s Eve and include the tomb of Father John Barry and a bullaun stone. In Rosscarbery, pilgrims continue to visit the tomb of Father John Power, a contemporary of Father Barnane, though the nearby holy well is forgotten. In Ballygarvan near Carrigaline, the tomb of Father Florence McCarthy is still revered but the attractive holy well down by the river is abandoned.

At Maulinward I suspect the original focus of the pilgrimage was the holy well, but was later transferred to the grave of Father Barnane, the well took second place and almost disappearing from local memory. I was amazed therefore when I went to visit the well on St John’s Eve 2021 to find Durrus Men’s Group had recently carefully restored the well and were paying their respects. I was invited to join them and have done so for most years since and am now an honorary member of the Group!

We gathered as usual in 2026, the well looking in fine form, the water old and clear. We also paid our respects to the grave of Father Barnane.

The location of this well can be found in the Gazetteer.

Many thanks to Tim for showing me the location of the grave.

Many thanks to Durrus Men’s Group for their work and insights and to Peter Hickey for his valuable information.