A tale of Saints & Sheep: Tobar na Molt, Ardfert

A trip to Kerry and a chance to take a quick excursion to a well I have long wanted to visit – Tobar na Molt, Well of the Wethers, in Ardfert just north east of Tralee. I have always been intrigued by the name and this entry from the Schools’ Folklore Collection offers an explanation:

Long ago when the Danes were here, the priests were not allowed to say mass in their little churches so they had to say it in lonely places. One day in a lonely corner of a field in Tubrid a priest started mass. The priest hunter came along but the priest did not stop from saying mass as he was at the consecration. As the priest hunters appeared they did not see the priest but instead they and their bloodhounds saw three lovely wethers who all of a sudden made their way towards the sea drawing the priest hunters and their hounds after them. The wethers entered the sea at a place in Banna Strand called Atha Caoraé. A stream of water marks the course taken by the wethers from where the hounds startled them right on to where they entered the sea at Atha Chaorach in Banna strand.

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Another entry describes how the unfortunate priest was killed and the well sprung up at the spot where he fell. It’s interesting how a story seemingly originating from Penal Times is put in a timeframe of the Danes though you could imagine they too were not keen on priests. Ringforts were also once wrongly considered to be Danish forts. The wethers, castrated male sheep, are another unusual feature in the story. .

Well of the Wethers, Tobar na Molt

The well did not disappoint and it even has the luxury of a parking space and is clearly signed! A beautifully carved stone informs that it’s part of the pilgrims’ route following in footsteps of St Brendan the Navigator – more of him shortly.

A red gates leads down a long attractive greenway through fields, immaculately kept

Ahead, the site is circular, lined by trees – another small red gate leading into the enclosure which is described on the historic maps as a penitential station.

It’s an interesting and complex site: a pilgrims’ shelter, the sunken well, an altar, statues, a rag tree and St Ita’s grave all jostling for attention.

First I went into the pilgrim’s shelter, a single storeyed stone built cabin, very attractive with its chimney, door and paned windows. This was originally used as an undressing room when total immersion was practised in the well.

Inside it’s cavernous, the walls whitewashed and lined with painted wooden benches.  A lifesize statue of Padre Pio looms out of the darkness, religious paintings propped here and there and statues and offerings cluster on the window ledge. Prayers and poems are tacked onto the rafters. It has a very otherworldly feel.

Emerging back into the light is slightly disorientating. The well is next to the shelter, large, stone-lined and sunk into the ground.

There are uneven steps leading down into it. Today (mid September) it’s dry – unusual apparently and a result of the long hot summer.*

It is here that St Brendan is said to have been baptised by in AD 484 by Bishop Erc of Ardfert, the first Bishop of Kerry, also known rather charmingly as the Blackbird of Slane.  After some impressive visions surrounding the birth of Brendan, Erc baptised him as Broen-finn or fair-drop:

Saint Brendan, the Patron Saint of Kerry was born near Fenit in 484 A.D. He was baptised by Bishop Erc at Wether’s Well. St. Brendan had always been a favoured man. On the night of his birth in Fenit, Kerry, the Bishop had seen an extraordinary blade of light and Angels in gleaming robes flying with gifts to all the neighbouring houses. A white mist spread over the Cape of Fenit on the day after. A year after when his friends gave the baby to St. Ita (a holy Abbess in the County of Limerick) she saw Angels about his cot. The child was very clever from his early youth .Why are you always so happy, said his foster mother to him. There are so many holy women like you who pass me from hand to hand and nurse me said St. Brendan. Saint Ita had no nurses in her house so she knew by that reply that the Angels were still with the miraculous boy.

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It is also suggested that St Erc received three wethers as a gift for the baptism.

St Ita, also known as the foster mother of the saints of Erin, not only was in attendance at the baptism but may have fostered the child for the first five or six years of his life. This beautiful stained glass window showing St Ita and the young Brendan is by Michael Healy  one of the members of An Túr Gloine, and can be seen in the National Gallery. Thanks to Finola Finlay for sending in the image. For more on the artist and the An Túr Gloine see Roaringwater Journal’s blog: Loughrea Cathedral and the Irish Arts and Crafts Movement.

The well water was considered powerful for all sorts of healing and it sounds as though full immersion took place on occasions:

Flory Hogan of Garrane near this school got cured in Wether’s well. He left his crutches in the bushes that surround the well. He has disabled legs and he could not walk. It is said that just before he was cured he saw this large trout in the well. A child that is not right (simpleton) is tied with a rope around the waist and is then let down into the waters of the well three times.
People perform rounds around the well, altar, and grave where the slain priest is supposed to be buried. Others say that the well was there before the time of St Brendan and that it is there he was baptised and buried. St Brendan was supposed to be baptised in this well by St Erc.

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The water of course would never boil and the sight of the silver trout, was guaranteed to bring good fortune:

When a sick person who visits this well sees a large silver trout he is immediately cured … One day a neighbour took home a bucket of this water to boil it, but if the water was down (on the fire) since it would not boil, because this silver trout that used to be seen was in the pail of water.

The well attracted large crowds on the pattern days, May Day, St John’s Eve (23rd June) and Michaelmas Eve (28th September):

There are three days on which rounds are performed there namely the Saturday before May Day, St John’s Eve, and Michaelmas Eve. Disabled or crippled people or the blind must bathe in the waters of the well. A long time ago a great miracle happened here one St John’s Eve. Three disabled boys came to the well with three pairs of crutches. After paying their three rounds they went into the well and bathed in it and they were immediately cured they left their crutches after them.

The rounds included the rather beautiful altar situated close to the well.

It looks more like a tomb chest and has three three well worn and evocative figures carved into it, des described appropriately as St Brendan, Bishop Erc and St Ita. Crosses carved by countless pilgrims disfigure their faces.  It’s one of those stone monuments that should it be moved will find its way back to its original position. Patrick Logan describes one incident:

… the story is than an enemy (Cromwellian) once used an ox cart to take it away from the well. When the cart had got as far as Bullock Hill, it stopped and the oxen refused to move any further, so it was left on the spot until the next morning. Then, to the surprise of some people, the stone was found moved back to its original place near the well.

Patrick Logan, The Holy Wells of Ireland, 1980

It’s a powerful monument with its chunky stones and smattering of colourful lichen.

Other stations were included in paying the rounds:

This is how they perform the rounds there (ie) They say two rosaries around a bunch (clump) of trees (b) they say three rosaries around the well and after each rosary they kneel down and ask their request (c) they finish up praying at the altar stone. There are three stones there shaped like a heart and they are supposed to be sweating (perspiring) at certain periods and when people rub their fingers to them and then rub the perspiration to the sores they are immediately cured.

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The heart-shaped stones must surely refer to the carved faces of the saints, now almost rubbed smooth.

The clump of trees remain and are in danger of enveloping two shrines, both containing statues, one of the BVM and one of Christ. Candles and lights are arrayed in front of them, and a rather large china rabbit. Close by another tree is festooned with rags and other offerings.

Behind this an unassuming grassy hump, complete with watchful angel turns out to be the resting place of St Ita: the foster mother of the infant Brendan. The townland, Tubrid More, is also named after her tobar ide – St Ita’s well. The large and well attended holy well in Tubrid, Millstreet also has St Ita as one of its patrons.

Patrick Logan’s description of the rounds begins at the grave:

The turass begins at the grave where pilgrims kneel and say five Paters and five Aves and then offers the round for the desire intention. He then walks around ‘the grave’ three times whilst saying five decades of the rosary, which are normally finished while the pilgrim kneels at the grave. He then begins a second rosary at ‘the grave’ and completes it as he goes three times round the well. In all cases he must take care to move in a clockwise directions. He then goes to ‘The Altar’ where he kneels and completes a third rosary. Formerly it was the custom that the pilgrims now went into the well and dipped three times under the water. This total immersion is no longer practised but, instead, he takes three sips of the water and three times puts some of it on his face, He then returns to the’ altar’ where he kisses each of the three figures on the altar stone. Alternatively he may sign each of the figures and himself with the Sign of the Cross. This completes the pilgrimage.

The Holy Wells of Ireland, 1980

Mass is still held here, now on St Brendan’s feast day, 16th May. A remarkable place: ancient, quiet, full of folklore and still relevant and spiritually alive.

• And I have just heard that the well is now full once again (November 2018)

After three years of Covid restrictions, Mass was held here on 16th May, 2022

The site is beautifully maintained by the O Flaherty family shown here at the Mass, 16 May 2022. Left to right Caoimhe and Darragh O Flaherty, Fr Pat Crean Lynch, Father Amos Ruto, Anne Marie and Richard O Flaherty, The well had originally been in Anne Marie’s family and when the O Flaherty family bought the land 16 years ago promised to maintain and cherish the site.

A recent visit to the well in May 2024 and the water was copious and very cold.

This year, 2024, I managed to attend the pattern day on the 16th May. A good crowd assembled, the weather stayed kind and the midges only nibbled. Father Pat conducted Mass and spoke in length and warmly about St Brendan. He was assisted again by Father Amos.

The well was chose as one of four to be explored in a series of contemporary artworks led by Marie Brett. You can read about the making of it here: Well Well Well?

The exhibition opened in Siamsa Tíre, Tralee in October 2024 with Marie and Richard O Flaherty, the well custodians, in attendance (far right).

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

Many thanks to Gail Tangney for the photo from St Brendan’s Day Mass, 2022. Thanks also to Annamarie and Richard O Flaherty for their extra information and support.