Lockdown Roundup

Now confined to 5km there’s not much chance of doing any serious well hunting but we did make the most of our last days of freedom and the lockdown is proving to be a good opportunity to update on various wells (and the website). Our final day out was a ramble with with friends around the Drimoleague Heritage Loop, one of several wonderful walks just above the town. We rendezvoused in the railway yard car park complete with the old station, small and derelict with its three platforms.

There were so many distractions before we had really got into the walk. First stop – an admire of an old house, now abandoned, with an impressive porch: a manse or parochial house perhaps?

Then an amble around the ancient graveyard with its melancholy yet beautifully tended famine memorial and an impressive array of tombs, jostling higgeldy piggeldy on the hillside.

Strolling further up the hill, bright blue paint alerted us to a grotto, a statue of the BVM gazing out across the hills and town below.

Surely a place for a holy well, but we could find nothing. Continuing upwards to the Top of the Rock we met David Ross, owner of the Parc Pods. A charming man, he had plenty of information about the immediate area. He told us that just below the grotto there were said to be the remains of a very early church, perhaps dedicated to St Finbarr, and that the whole area was still considered sacred. When the road was widened and straightened sometime in the early 1930s, the road curved around what was still considered holy ground.

There is a short reference to it in the Schools’ Folklore Collection:

About half a mile to the North of Drimoleague near top of the rock stand the ruins of an old Catholic Church the remains of which still may be seen. There is a tradition about this old ruin that it is not right to interfere with the stones of it. Some years ago when an adjacent road was to be repaired stones were required for it but the stones of the old ruin were left untouched.

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There’s no trace of the church now nor of an ancient slab of stone where coffins were rested as they were shouldered down towards the cemetery. This was removed during the road works. I casually inquired whether there was a holy well in the area for it felt like there should be. Well yes, there was, and we had walked right past it!

Well of the Devil, Tobar an Diabhail

Retracing our steps we went back to investigate the well. It was tucked into the side of the road right opposite the grotto, a tall tree looming behind it.

The well is built into the bank, the narrow sides reinforced with stone and a cement slab on the top acting as a roof. The entrance is narrow, a series of steps, covered in leaf mould, leading down below ground to the well itself. There is still water within it but it was choked with leaves and other foliage. It looked as though the interior may have been whitewashed at some point.

David told us that the water was once used for baptisms but he knew it by the name of Well of the Devil, Tobar an Diabhail. Sadly I haven’t been able to find out how it got that  name – was it disrespected at some point and turned? In fact I have been unable to find out anything else: it’s not marked on the historic maps, is not listed in the Archaeological Inventory nor does it feature in the Schools’ Folklore Collection. The grotto, holy well, possible church site and coffin slab must surely have once been connected in some way. The grotto, David told us, was put up by a local family in the Holy Year 1950. There are several wells dedicated to St Finbarr in this area marking the old pilgrim route to Gougane Barra, could this well have once been dedicated to him? If the church had him as his patron it seems possible. All speculation but an interesting find.

Well of the Church in the Field, Tobar na Gort a Kill, Schull

I visited this little well way back in the Autumn of 2019 but never found the right moment to record it.  It’s not listed in the Archaeological Inventory and I only discovered it when trawling through the Schools’ Folklore Collection:

There is only one holy well in this district. That one is situated in the fifth field west of Meenvane Bridge at the north side of the stream. Long ago people used to go to this well to be cured of certain ailments, but no one goes there now. The water was supposed to be a very good cure for warts. At the side of the well there is a stone with a hollow on top, into which people who visited the well put a coin, a tag, a button, or some other article. The name of this well is ‘Tobar na gort a kill’ which means ‘the well of the field of the church’. There is no trace of a church or other building in this field now. This field is never ploughed, but cattle graze upon it. It is not known with what saint this well is connected.

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The well lay just as described in the extract, tucked into the side of the road, overgrown and forgotten but still there.

A little careful tidying around it and a stone basin was revealed, the water copious and clearish.

There was no sign of the church referred to in the extract, either on the ground or in the historic maps nor of what sounds like a bullaun stone. It is in close proximity to a ringfort though!

A few other wells have had changes in their fortunes. Here’s a quick round up.

Gouladoo Holy Well, Tobar Beannaithe, Sheep’s Head

One of my local wells, I visited with a friend recently. The sun shone, we were distracted by rainbows as we traversed the Goat’s Path.

The well, known simply as the Blessed Well, Tobar Beannaithe, was looking in fine form and  had been sympathetically tidied up since I had last been, a little cup left in one of the recesses and a smattering of coins showed it had received visitors fairly recently.

This well is in a truly amazing situation, tucked into a little ridge but gazing out across Bantry Bay. In front of it, now hard to distinguish, are the remains of a promontory fort. Once visited by young girls wanting answers about their potential weddings, two older women left flowers and a new statue.

St Peter’s Well, near Fermoy

I had an email from Frank O Sullivan who told me that he thought the elusive well dedicated to St Peter on the slopes of Corrin Hill was still there. He had grown up in the area and remembered the location. He kindly went off to explore and there it was, tucked below ground level, almost concealed by the undergrowth.

The water looked abundant and clear and tucked among the greenery are statues, the well still revered. This well is on the trail that winds up Corrin HIll, a holy mountain, the path marked by Stations of the Cross with a huge Bronze Age cairn atop. Worth the clamber for the views are mighty. 

Well of the Glen, Tubbercooragh a Glynna, Ballyclogh

Thanks too to Michael Fitzgerald who put me right about Well of the Glen, Tubbercooragh a Glynna, in North Cork. We had spent ages looking for this well in densely wooded surroundings, eventually finding what looked like a trough, mossy and almost covered by undergrowth. In fact it was a cattle trough for cattle were once crossed the river at this point. The well itself was just 10m away and Michael kindly supplied a photo.

It looks dilapidated and forgotten, the stone wall in a sorry state but there is still some water in the well. It once once held a cure for sore eyes.

St Cranat’s Well, Tobar Cranatan, Garranachole

Fiachra Ó Súilleabháin also wrote to give some details about St Cranat’s Well which I had searched high and low for two years ago. During the last lockdown work had been carried it by the local community to expose the well and repair the wall beside it. There is still work to be done but the well is now accessible and can be identified at the side of a linn, (a natural watercourse that runs through a shelf of hard rock creating a small crevice).

There are plans to restore the wall of the well and to complete work to the wall, including the stone that has an inscription: Eucharist Week 1932. St Cranat apparently scooped the well into her apron after it had been disrespected in nearby Killuragh and placed it here some 900m away. It once held a cure for skin diseases and sore eyes.

Many thanks to Frank O Sullivan, Michael FitzGerald and Fiachra Ó Súilleabháin for their additional information and photographs.

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