Tobar an Bhile & a lot of Serendipity

Many years ago, and I’m talking about the late 1990s, we came for a family holiday in Kerry, staying in a cottage on the old butter road high on the slopes above Coad Mountain not far from Caherdaniel. Whilst in the local shop, I saw a notice about a pattern day at a holy well and wondered what that meant. On a wild, wet and windy evening in late July I ventured out and joined a considerable crowd of damp people battling the wind and rain, umbrellas blowing inside out, and someone, who I assumed to be a bishop, in their midst.  It was a strange and rather perplexing sight. The crowd walked solemnly in a circular manner around what looked like a not very impressive muddy pond. How odd, I thought, and yet how interesting. I was smiled at tolerantly and encouraged to join in but I had no idea what was going on or what the etiquette was. I observed damply but I didn’t forget.

That was my first experience of an active holy well and it left a deep impression. Now I like to think I understand a little more and and I recently revisited that very well, known as Tobar an Bhile, Well of the Blessed Tree, also referred to as St Crohane’s Well, after the patron saint of the parish. There’s a nice link here for I now not only live in Ireland but am very close to a village called Kilcrohane in West Cork, where another church is dedicated to the same saint. Some may call that fate or serendipity, or pure coincidence.

Well of the Blessed Tree,Tobar an Bhile, Tobervilla, St Crohane’s Well

The well can take a bit of finding. You leave the N70 and drive cautiously up a very steep and winding road where once, on the same holiday mentioned above, we encountered a very large bull nonchalantly sauntering. It all looked a bit tider and neater today though the weather was horrendous and as we emerged from the car it briefly snowed. A herd of rather dishevelled sheep looked at us with surprise, as well they might.

The first thing you come across is a circular enclosure, walled and gated. Inside are the Stations of the Cross carved onto slate markers and in the centre is a statue of the BVM. Spindly ash trees have been planted within.

I assume this marks where the Bile, or blessed tree once stood. An ancient ash tree, named as Old Tree on the historic 6 inch map and with a tiny tree illustration on the historic 25 inch, is said to have marked where St Crohane is buried and gives its name to the official title of the well Tobar an Bhile, Well of the Blessed Tree. The tree had special properties of its own as this extract from the Schools Folklore Collection describes:

… There was a tree growing near Crohane’s Well and the people cut it for fire, but it would not burn. Every year when the people go to Crohan they bring a branch of the tree with them. The people throw money into the well. There is also a bucket of the water preserved when the well runs dry. (325:0467)

The original tree has long since vanished but these young ones are a nice touch.

Behind this evocative little grove lies the well, again a smart red gate separating it from the main site.

This too has been much tidied up since I remembered it and it now has a neatly built stone well house covering what was once just a slabbed spring emerging from the ground. There is a niche with a redundant flower bed and an attractive name plaque. The water is said to never boil but it sounds as though it dries up now and again.

The water today is fresh, clear and bubbling from underground, a sprinkling of watercress on its surface. It flows down a stone channel into the hillside.

Robert (our travelling companions the Roaringwaters), as always tried the water and pronounced it good.

Close to the well are two cross inscribed stones which, like the tree grove, are included in the rounds. Robert demonstrated the correct procedure using the stone left for the particular purpose.

A bush decorated with colourful rags added to the atmosphere.

To the east lies a Mass Rock topped with a large cross- inscribed stone, presumably the one that was described as being recumbent in the Inventory.

In fact this well is just one of three that were visited on the annual pattern day:

The well and sacred tree or bile formed the principal assembly point of the three-day pattern formerly held in this parish in honour of St Crohane (OSL; Ó Cíobháin 1984a, 23-4). This is considered by MacNeill to have been originally a Lughnasa pilgrimage-assembly (1962, 648-50), and commenced on July 29th, Oíche Chrócháin. It included a turas or pilgrimage from Kilcrohane up to Windy Gap, close to the summit of Eagles Hill, where another holy well, Tobar na Bearnan (KE098-086—-), is located. En route rounds were also made at Tobercrohane well (KE106-029002-). The pattern has been in decline from the mid-nineteenth century, and since the 1940s Toberavilla has rarely been visited. (Archaeological Inventory)

The pattern started on July 29th, Oíche Chrócháin, St Crohane’s Eve commencing at this well:

… There is another holy well at Code called St Crohane’s Well. People go to this well every year on the 29th July. There is a rock near the well and there is a representation of St Crohane’s back on it because it is is said he stretched near this rock once. There is also a tree there and it is around the tree that people make the rounds. (257/258:0467)

The turas or pilgrimage continued for three days and wend its way up to another well, Tobar Na Bearnan in the aptly named Windy Gap close to the summit of Eagle’s Hill. I have yet to visit Tobar na Bearnan, which appropriately enough translates as Well of the Gap, but have been to Windy Gap on that original holiday, remembered for its extreme windiness and how the eldest son unwittingly stepped into the bog up to his thighs in his new birthday trousers (orange seersucker – this was the 90s. And I’ve just realised his birthday is St Crohane’s feast day! More serendipitousness). The well still exists and holds a cure for sore eyes. I will be braving it soon.

Enroute pilgrims paid respects to a second well, Tobar Crócháin, also dedicated to the saint. This well was located near what was originally thought to have been a cave known as St Crohane’s Hermitage or Carraig Chrócháin where the saint was said to have lived for some time. The cave  turns out to be a prehistoric copper mine and is still visible.The well, no longer so, was renowned for its curative powers.The pilgrimage is considered to have originally been a Lunasa gathering. And it’s good to know that a pattern is still flourishing but I have yet to find if they struggle up towards Eagle’s Hill.

Walking back down to the car we examined the ruins of the Medieval church known as Coad Church, dedicated as you might expect to St Crohane. The second, slightly better preserved building, is the remains of an old RC chapel.

By the time we returned to the car the views were mighty.

The well 1946 F025.1800005

Cross inscribed by pilgrims. F025.1800004

Well F025.180263

The sacred tree in the landscape F025. 180262

The bile, plus coins hammered into trunk F025.1800005