Well Hunting around Ballinspittle

A crisp clear morning in Kinsale, we had four wells on the agenda on our way home. First stop Lady’s Well, just over the bridge at Ringrone.

 Lady’s Well, Tobar Mhuire, Ringrone

The well looked to lie quite close to the road in pasture. According to the Archaeological Inventory, it no longer had holy use but had been turned into a cattle trough. The road was busy and the pavement small as we rummaged around in the wooded ditch area. There was a stream but no sign of any well. We left the main road and followed a lane upwards towards the old graveyard where we could see someone working. He had never heard of any well but he did know where a female pirate was buried and pointed us to Anne Bonney’s grave, suitably decorated with skulls and crossbones (this may be one of many possible burial sites)! Actually this is a memorial to members of the Bullen family and carvings are simply memento mori, but it makes a good story. The remains of the old castle, built by the grandson of the Norman knight Sir John de Courcy in the thirteenth century, lay in the field next door.

Just a single stack now and the area around it being landscaped. No sign of any cattle troughs and the stream had been diverted, the area around cleared. I wondered if the well had been lost in the renovations. We conceded defeat.

Since posting this blog I have heard from Jerome Lordan who has kindly sent this image of the well.

It is about 100 metres north east of the castle and I suspect very close to where I was. Looking a little forlorn today.

Edit: I finally managed to find this well in May 2018. It was heavily overgrown and full of watercress.

Once it was renowned for the quality of its water but has had few visitors for a long time.

St Ruadhán’s Wells, Tobar Ruadhán, Courtaparteen

On to Courtaparteen and some very small roads. The final track was tiny – more green than tarmac, so we parked the car where we could and continued on foot. Fuchsia-line with enticing glimpses of the sea, this was a beautiful spot, looking especially good in the late October sunshine.

The boreen widened up a little and it was clear that some restoration work had been going on for there were signs to the old church, and new steps had been cut into the path. Two wells were in this area, roughly 50 metres apart. The first well encountered was clearly signed St Ruadhán’s Well.

The first well is tucked into a field boundary and has a semi-circular basin full of fresh clear water. The concave stone wall contains a slabbed shelf, full of offerings – white pebbles and a statue of the BVM. A single white rag hangs above the well.

A crucifix rests on stones just below the shelf. The water is clean and fresh, and meant to be good for sore eyes and warts. I was told that the cure is still potent and how a young man was cured of his warts here (February 2024).

50m to the east lies another well, much less cherished, in fact seemingly forgotten in the undergrowth. It is a rectangular rock-cut depression, lined with concrete and stone flags.

The ITA (Irish Tourism Survey) of the 1940s describes how little white stones were dropped into the water, as people bathed their sore eyes. Today the well was merely damp but the first well still had offerings of white stones. Interesting too how one has been beautifully restored while the other neglected. I would love to hear more about these two wells if anyone has any information.

Edit: Sasha France has been keeping an eye out for the neglected little well and sent me a photograph of it looking a lot happier in February 2024, the basin now full of water and the leaves cleared.

We carried on down to the old church, Kilroan, (SMR: CO125-021002) also dedicated to St Ruadhán, following red arrows painted on the path. What a fantastic view opened up as we emerged from the woodland. The remains of the church lie right on the edge of the cliff overlooking a wild and colourful ocean.

The Feast day of St Ruadhán  (his name can be spelt in many different ways) is the 15th April. Ruadhán was one of the 12 Apostles of Ireland. He founded a monastic settlement in Lorrha, Tipperary. A rather beautiful bell was found in a holy well there and was attributed to the saint, and is now viewable in the British Museum.

Ruadhán is said to have caused the downfall of the ancient kingdom of Tara for he cursed the High King, Diarmuid Mac Cerbhaill, after he had gone against the rules of Christian sanctuary and wrenched a hostage hiding in a church.  Aengus the Culdee in his Féilire, a sort of catalogue of saints written around 780AD, praised him as such:

An excellent flame that does not wane,
that vanquishes urgent desires.
Fair was the gem,
Ruadhán, lamp of Lorrha.

The wells were revisited in November 2024 on a very misty, murky day. The first well remains neatly tended if secretive.

The second well was visible but had little water in it. A few offerings had been placed on top of the lintel.

White pebbles were clearly seen at the base.

This time we explored the remains of what is called a famine village on several maps – a cluster of stone built houses now being taken over by foliage. In reality, it seems the some of the houses were still occupied into the 1950s.

This small, remote area must once have been compact and self-sufficient with its clochán, church and wells.

There is also a Mass Rock but the path to it is considered too treacherous to get to at the moment, tucked as it is into a cliffside.

Sunday’s Well, Tobairín an Domhnach, Tobereendoney, Ballinspittle*

On to Ballinspittle, famous for two things: Diva, a really delicious café and the Grotto where in 1985 the statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary was said to have moved, a phenomenon apparently witnessed by many people. (Similar sightings of divine apparitions occurred at 30 other places in Ireland during that extraordinary year).

The little well though lies in the opposite direction, a much older place, revered for many centuries. Approached through a red wicket gate bearing a helpful sign, the path is laid out with just discernible stones, gunnera adding a luxuriant feel to the surroundings.

The well, lying flat in the ground, is roughly pentagonal shaped, the water clear and deep. It is a Sunday’s Well, Tobairín an Domhnach – possibly dedicated to the King of Sunday (Christ, or sometimes St Dominic) or maybe referring to its connection with an early church which, according to local tradition, was sited nearby. The townland is Kilmore , means big church.

It has curative properties for sore eyes and was last renovated 1970 as the little plaque tells informs.*

Tucked behind a tree trunk, a sandwich box contained a variety of offerings and a notebook and pencil should you wish to leave a prayer or comment. (I have since discovered that I was being rather naive here and that this little box is in fact a geocache! I suppose you are still leaving offerings of a sort!)

John Holland, writing in 1908 has some more information about the well, with a distinctly moral flavour:

In the townland of Kilmore … is a ‘Holy Well’ called Tobar Riog an Domnach or the ‘Well of Sunday’s King’. It is not quite two feet in diameter, never runs dry and never overflows, even in the heaviest rain … To this well, people afflicted with sore eyes, ulcers and diseases of all descriptions, are wont to repair on three successive Sunday mornings to ‘pay their rounds’ as they say – that is to pray for the removal of their infirmities. It is customary with them to leave some memento of their visits, such as a string or strip of cloth tied to the limbs of a tree that grows beside it , and the writer has counted 50 of these mementoes recently placed there. Local tradition tells that the well was formerly located 60 yards west of its present site, but that one of the lords of the manor gave orders to his steward to have the well closed . This was done with filling it up with stones and clay but very soon the water sprang up again in its present site and the people continued to ‘pay their rounds as before’. Within a week of closing the original well, the son of the steward who had superintended the work, died of an inexplicable disease, and the writer has heard the boy’s mother repeatedly assert that she attributed his untimely death to his father having been employed in closing the holy well. Before the end of the year the lord of the manor who had ordered the the well to be closed, got afflicted with ulcers, and died a most painful death, and ever since people have been allowed to visit the well without let or hindrance.

John Holland, Notes & Queries, Kilmore Holy Well; Garretstown, 1908. JCHAS.

A quiet and rather beautiful spot today. I visited without hindrance.

It’s Interesting how the last three wells all had cures for sore eyes. The water here is rich in manganese but I can find no information that that is especially good for sore eyes – anaemia and osteoporosis yes!

*Some interesting additional information has just come in from Jerome Lordan:

Tobar Ruadhán is known locally as having a cure for warts. I suspect that Tobairín an Domhnach is incorrectly interpreted as ‘Sunday Well’ as it is in the Townland of Kilmore (big church) and is very close to one of Ireland’s largest ringforts at Ballycatten. The strong link between church and secular society in medieval Ireland would suggest to me that it was a Domhnach church with possibly a high ranking cleric overseeing society here. The church site according to local tradition was close to the well. The emphasis here really is that by translating the native name the nuance in the name will be lost. A local man put up a little sign with the ‘Sunday’s Well ‘ interpretation on the little gate entering the well area. However well intentioned he was, he should have just left the original name without his translation.

• I have since been fortunate to meet Ray White who rediscovered and restored Sunday’s Well in 1970. He told me that the well was originally called Well of the Fort ( a large ringfort lies just across the road) and then Well of the Church. When he was cleaning up the site he came across many offerings including broken egg cups, which he believed were used as eye baths.

Many thanks to Jerome Lordan for the additional information regarding the names of these wells and their correct spelling. And for the photograph of Lady’s Well.

Thanks to Ray White for additional information concerning Sunday’s Well.

Thanks to John O Leary for showing me Lady’s Well.

Thanks also to Sasha France for her photograph of the second well in Courtaparteen.

The location of these wells can be found in the Gazetteer.