Not a holy well…

… but a Spa Bathing Well or chalybeate well! And a very interesting one too.

I had an email from Janine, who sent me to John who sent me to Ray to find out about an intriguing well deep in the woods at Garrettstown near Kinsale.

Lady’s Well, Ringrone, Kinsale

I arranged to meet John in Ringrone cemetery where he first wanted to show me the Lady’s Well. I had tried to find this once before with no luck but this time, with John’s guidance, there was success. It lies underneath the gaunt remains of Ringrone Castle (CO125-001), with a steep descent to locate it. The well is still there but swamped with watercress and hard to access.

It was once renowned for the quality of its water and judging by the abundance of the watercress remains pure to this day.

Spa Bathing Well, Garrettstown

We then drove to Garrettstown near Ballinspittle to meet Ray. Ray poured us into his land rover and we bounced down a very rough track, his vehicle beeping and protesting at every rut and swerve. We came to a halt in a very wet and densely wooded area. Hard to imagine, but this was once part of the Garrettstown House demesne. The National Inventory of Architectural Heritage has this to say about the origins of the house and estate:

Built by the Kearney family between the years 1702 and 1720, with changes and additions being made until 1740, this building was originally a wing of a substantial country house. The main house was never started due to financial reasons and this, one of the flanking buildings, was subsequently turned into a stable block. The money saved by not building the main house was spent on improving the gardens and grounds.

And the garden and grounds were impressive, comprising a serpentine lake, rabbit warren, ornamental towers, waterfalls, belvederes, deer park – and a chalybeate well (marked as well covd on map). It was this Ray had brought us to see.

The iron rich waters were first discovered in 1750 when the then landowner, Francis Kearney, decided to build a serpentine lake. You can see it on the map – complete with a long tail and an island for its eye. Whilst digging a canal to take water to the lake from the fresh springs nearby he came across the chalybeate spring – identifiable by its rich rusty coloured deposits. Francis decided to take advantage and to turn it into a Spa Bathing pool – it being very fashionable to take the waters at this time (think of Bath or Leamington Spa in the UK, or closer to home – Mallow , where there was also a spa). A beehive-shaped wellhouse was constructed over the spring, smart gravel paths laid out and a thatched changing gazebo erected nearby for those wishing to immerse themselves in the water.

Ray asked us to imagine the ladies in their finery tripping down the path to avail of the waters. This was hard to visualise today in this seemingly very remote spot but there was the pure, bubbling spring that fed the lake complete with original 18C flagstone bridge, there (over the hedge) was the still impressive and manicured area around the serpentine lake and there in the boggy greenery was the beehive-shaped welhouse. The gazebo has sadly disintegrated though glimpses of gravel in the path can still be seen.

What remains today is not the original construction for that had partly fallen after a 100 years of neglect. In 2006, Ray, with the help of a friend, decided to try and not only locate the forgotten well, but to restore it. This is how he described the first experiences in March of that year:

… we made an access pathway to find the long lost well, in all about two days and four hours were spent trying to locate this stone, delicate, beehive type hut. We were at exhaustion point and as the evening light was fading we began to despair, the whole area was like a quagmire, shaking like a jellyfish on a beach. … we began to search by hand … I was covered in black slime from head to toe and my hands and legs were torn apart from the dense scrub … eventually I located the stone hut and what a relief it was …

Much of the original stone had fallen but Ray managed to locate and sort the stones and then  rebuild the hut. He used a lime and sand mixture to hold the stones, similar to the original method. The hut was reconstructed by April.

He then had to clean out the inside of the well which was full with over a metre of reddish slime!  There were more surprises:

… I found to my surprise that the floor of the bathing well was coated with white round stones which came from the seaside, the purpose of these stones I believe was to … make it easy on their bare feet when they stepped inside to take a dip …

He also found a submerged step which bathers would step onto before going into the well backwards. The lintel was also sloped to prevent banging heads. Ray demonstrated how this worked!

Another interesting discovery was the stone drain:

… which entered (the hut) at the three foot level and filtered its waters through the stone wall of the hut. Its overflow was on the opposite side with an oblong opening leading out to another drain, in this way there was a constant flow keeping water circulating at all times.

Chalybeate water contains minerals, usually iron salts and is often distinguished by its rusty red appearance due to the iron content.

In their day these waters at Garrettstown were considered especially effective for the cure of piles, pimples, acne and scurvy; bathers usually availing in the late afternoon when the sun shone on the entrance which faces south west. Interestingly, this water has been tested and found to contain the following:

pH 5.7;  COD 18;*  Chloride 58.5 mg/l, Sulphate 8.65mg/l,  Nitrate 1.75mg/l

+ Chemical oxygen demand – The standard method for indirect measurement of the amount of pollution  in a sample of water. The higher the COD the higher the pollution

I’m not sure what these results actually mean but the water is certainly full of mineral salts and iron.

A huge amount of work and today the well stands alone and rather forlorn but still impressive.  It’s worth the rather midgy and soggy trip down the old green road to see it. I’m not sure I’ll be bathing any time soon though!

Sunday’s Well, Tobarin an Domhnach, near Ballinspittle

The day was complete with a quick visit to another well Ray had restored, back in 1970 – Tobarin an Domhnach. I had been to this one before but it was good to hear a little more information from Ray himself. Again, the well had seemingly completely vanished and Ray and his uncle hunted around until they came across the lintel and found the well intact underneath.

He told me that the original name was Well of the Fort ( the impressive Ballycatten ringfort lies across the road CO124-034001), then Well of the Church and finally Sunday’s Well on account of it being visited on a sunday. It held a cure for sore eyes and when clearing up the site Ray found several broken pieces of egg cups, possibly once used to bathe eyes. Again he had the water tested. These are the results:

PH 5.9, COD 30, Chloride 32.2mg/l; Sulphate 11.51mg/l; Nitrate 7.78mg/l.

Travelling home via Ballinadee a stop had to be made at the remarkable heart-shaped grotto.

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

Sincere thanks to John O Leary and Ray White for taking the time to show me these elusive wells. And thanks to Janine for the initial inquiry.