Cork City Wells Revisited

Cork city originally had six wells in its vicinity: Lady’s Well, Leitrim Street; St Francis Well, Franciscan Well Pub; Sunday’s Well, Sunday’s Well Road; Toibar Bhrionach, Wise’s Hill; St Finbarr’s Well, Kilbarry and St Bartholomew’s Well, Doughcloyne. The first four were investigated on an atrocious day way back in February 2016 and are due for a revisit, sadly not physically due to Covid-19, but in the light of my discovering more information about them. St Finbarr’s was visited in 2018 and St Bartholomew’s has yet to be tracked down but it might be useful to include all of them on one page.

A word about sources: most quotes cited here appear in an invaluable paper by Seán Ó Coindealbháin which was published in the Journal of the Cork Historical & Archaeological Society (JCHAS) in 1946, simply entitled Holy Wells. I have also given the original sources where possible.

Lady’s Well, Leitrim Street

Once Leitrim Street was known as Lady Well Street and the Heineken Brewery, adjacent, originally known as Lady’s Well Brewery or JJ Murphy’s Brewery. The well is across the road, a small plaque hidden amongst foliage gives a little information. It reads:

Our Lady’s Well

This well can be traced in old maps and records for over 300 years and possibly has its origins in early Christian Cork. There is a record of a very large pilgrimage to this site in 1748. Following upon the restoration of the shrine by employees of Murphy’s Brewery, Mass was concelebrated by the right Rev Mgr. Deane J Bastiple DD PRVC and Rev Vincent Daly CC, May 1981

Plaque on wall

It looks as though the original entrance to the well was here but it’s now blocked up. Continue along the road then up some very wide steps and the well is on the right hand side. The whole place had a derelict and unhappy air when I first visited, not helped by the dismal weather.

It is in an elevated position though with great views out across the city, should you be able to see them! The well itself now has a protective grill over it but the water within is abundant and clear, though sadly it is inaccessible. 

Stone seating is arranged in an amphitheatre behind it and in front a paved area hints at the once anticipated pilgrims. To the east, a small boarded-up red sandstone structure once contained a shrine dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary (BVM).

This was described by Seán Ó Coindealbháin in 1946 as being well kept and included a statue of the BVM.

The shrine probably dates from the 18th century, though the well is probably much older and is mentioned in A Tour through Ireland by Two Englishmen, 1748 which hints at its long history:

The water for the use of the kitchen is fetched from above the town; and what is drunk by the inhabitants is brought from ‘My Lady’s Well’, a place much resorted to before the Reformation, and where even now the Roman Catholics come to pay their devotions.

A Tour Through Ireland by Two Englishman, 1748, taken from an article in the Journal of the Cork Historical and Archaeological Journal, 1903, Vol 9, no 75. Author Cn (JCHAS)

Ó Coindealbháin describes the well in 1946 as being not much frequented with just a small flow of water. Later it seems to have completely fallen out of use and was restored by the Brewery and Council in 1980, as the plaque proclaims. By 2000 it was again in a poor state of repair but there were plans by the community and council to renovate the site, restore the well and make a park of the area. During this work it was excavated by Cork City Council. A cast iron basin was discovered surrounded by sandstone flags – presumably the results of the 1980 restoration. A few fragments of 18th century pottery were also discovered. The excavation did not go into any deeper levels and the whole thing was then backfilled; a new floor level made, the walls repaired and the grotto tidied up. Within a few years the area had been vandalised again and was restored in 2014. Today it is once again forsaken and vandalised, littered with bottles and other unsavoury debris, the stone walls graffitied. The well was traditionally visited in May, the month devoted to the BVM.

Francis Well, The Franciscan Well Pub

Visiting Cork in the late 18C, Charles Smith, slightly snidely, described the next city well as:

… a celebrated spring, which the friars pretended, had the virtue of curing sore eyes, by the miraculous intervention of St Francis…

Charles Smith, The Ancient and Present State of the County and City of Cork, 1774

Rather more enthusiastically, John Fitzgerald described how it was still in use by 1896:

It is a splendid well some five feet in diameter, with a never failing supply of pure crystal water, which always remains about two feet deep. It is highly medicinal, resembling in taste the Mallow Spa, and many people still use it as a cure for sore eyes, consumption and other ailments. There is a narrow little pathway around the well which leads into a room that is like a crypt, for the end of it is furthest from the well is formed by a solid rock of sandstone.

John Fitzgerald, 1896, in O Coindealbháin, 1946

To find the well today a visit is required to the Franciscan Well Pub, there’s a clue here!

It is located it in the smoking area at the back of the pub, almost obscured by beer barrels.

The entrance is now barred by metal railings but the well itself remains intact, cut out of the rock cliff and protected by a stone built well house. Steps lead down to the well which was damp but not full of water. A few strands of plastic vegetation were placed within.

The entrance was originally said to have had a wooden panel with the date 1688 marked onto it in iron. There is meant to be a second chamber to the west cut out of the rock. The well is linked with the Franciscan Friars who established a friary here in the 13th century. The well had a reputation for cures and people resorted to it for sore eyes and consumption.

Today The Franciscan Well is known for its own micro-brewery, cures of a different kind perhaps!

Sunday’s Well, Tobar Ri an Domhnaigh

Sunday’s Well was sited rather unsurprisingly in Sunday’s Well Road- in fact this whole area of Cork is named after it. It’s name in Irish is Tobar Ri an Domhnaigh, Well of the Sunday King or Jesus Christ.

It was an ancient and popular site, long associated with general healing and devotion. This is what a French traveller, Monsieur de La Bouyalle Le Gouz had to say about it in 1644:

A mile from Korq (Cork) is a well called by the English, Sunday Spring, or the fountain of Sunday, which the Irish believe is blessed and cures many ills. I found the water of it extremely cold.

Thomas Crofton Croker (ed) 1837: The Tour of the French traveller M. De La Boullaye Le Gouz in Ireland, AD 1644

Crofton Croker added a little more description:

Sunday’s Well is at the side of the high road, and is surrounded by a rude, stone building,on a tablet on the wall of which the letters IHS marks its ancient reputation for sanctity. It is shadowed by some fine old ash trees.

The fine old trees are clearly shown in this photo from the late 19C, as is the domed well house and is that young man carrying a bucket ready to avail of the water?

in 1848 the well was still flourishing. John Windele observed:

Sunday’s Well is another remarkable outlet of this quarter of the City. It occupies the south side of the green hill, which stretches westward on a line with the river. It takes its name from one of those ancient fountains, which, long ere the Christian faith was preached in Ireland, was held sacred by its Druids and people. The exertions of the first missionaries were ineffectual to prevent their worship, devotion, and substituting objects of Christian reverence. Sunday’s Well, in Irish, Tobar Righ an domhnach, i.e. the fountain of the Lord, is one of those converted shrines. It is a small circular building, capped with stone, and shaded by an elm, and two ash trees. On a tablet, in the wall, is inscribed under an I.H.S. Sunday’s Well. Early in the morning of the summer Sundays, may be seen the hooded devotees, with bead in hand, performing their turrish, or penance, beside this little temple; and the votive rag, as in India, and as seen in Africa by Mungo Park may be observed attached to one of the hanging branches of the trees. That water is clear and wholesome…

J Windele: Historical and descriptive notices of the City of Cork and its vicinity, 1848

The Michael Lenihan Collection, housed in Cork Public Museum, has another remarkable image of the well – the original is a glass lantern slide and the colours are vibrant. This dates from the early 20C and the well is looking in a poor state of repair.

Sadly Sunday’s Well disappeared in 1946 when the road was widened but the small plaque referred to by travellers was removed and placed on the wall marking its original site.

An arc of cobbles marks its shape on the pavement.

Whilst it was being dismantled, the opportunity was taken to excavate the site. Professor Michael J O Kelly, later to excavate Newgrange, lead the dig. A midden was discovered containing oysters, sheep and pig bones and a small amount of 17th and 18th century pottery, assumed to have been left by pilgrims.

Edit:

I was sent this photo in early 2023 and it seems that the spring that fed the original well may still be flourishing and running through the gardens of various houses in Sunday’s Well.

Many thanks to Women of the Water and All is Well for alerting me to this find.

Tiobar Bhrianach

The fourth well is close to the Franciscan Well Pub on Wise’s Hill. Tiobar Bhrianach is another site associated with a brewery and with the Franciscans. North Mill Distillery was founded in 1779 by Mr Wise possibly on the site of the 13thC Franciscan Abbey. Dr Caulfield described what happened:

… the old Franciscan Abbey was where Wise’s Distillery now stands. When Mr Wise commenced his distillery about the beginning of the last century, there was an old well there with the title ‘Tubber na Brianah’, and people used to come from the country around this well. This became rather troublesome, and on one or two occasions, the excise authorities caught some persons bringing out pails of whiskey instead of water. Mr Wise was then obliged to stop this practice, and he shut up the well and put a stone to mark where the well was.

Dr Caulfield: Meeting of the Cork Examiner, 11th October 1883

The stone referred to is a piece of carved masonry, probably a fragment of a mullion window from the Franciscan Abbey, which was placed on the wall to indicate the original position of the well.

The traffic thunders by and you risk life and limb trying to get a photograph, but it’s worth examining.

Tober Bhrianach means Well of Learning or Eloquence, maybe the whiskey helped!

St Finbarr’s Well, Kilbarry

St Finbarr’s Well lies in a tangle of undergrowth close to the Bolan Industrial Estate in Kilbarry, and is described by the Archaeological Inventory as being rediscovered in 2009. There is a possibility that this was where St Finbarr, patron saint of Cork, founded his original church but when I visited in 2018 the site was looking unloved and confusing.

St Bartholomew’s Well, Doughcloyne

The final City well is two miles outside the city in Doughcloyne and was much once revered and noted for its healing qualities. The Two Englishmen were impressed when they visited in the mid 18C:

We went this morning to that of St Bartholomew, which being the saint’s day, was surrounded by a vast crowd of Roman Catholics, some upon their knees at their devotions, and others walking with beads in their hands. The ceremony here is called a ‘Patron’. The well is enclosed with trees close to the side of the road and even the sight of it looks refreshing. When their devotions are done, they retire to several sutlers’ tents erected for that purpose, some to eat and drink, others to wrestling and yelling, dancing, noise and merriment, which bought on several boxing bouts whilst we staid there.

A Tour Through Ireland by Two Englishman, 1748, taken from an article in the Journal of the Cork Historical and Archaeological Journal, 1903, Vol 9, no 75. Author Cn (JCHAS)

Charles Smith also left a detailed account:

About two miles SSW from Cork, is a celebrated holy well, dedicated to St Bartholomew. The water gushes out from a slaty rock, through a round hole cut into it, about two feet in diamter, and one and a half feet deep; it is walled and covered by an arch of stone; there is an avenue of sycamore trees leading to the well. They relate stories of mirauclous cures having been performed by this water, particularly on the person who planted the avenue, and whose name was Gallant, and who they say received his sight by the use of the water. There is a flag stone set up on which there is a cross with an inscription importing that David Fox got the use of his limbs by bathing in it. It is still much frequented on St Bartholomew’s Day, and the evening before, by an infinite number of Romish devotees, who flock to it out of devotion, and for the cure of sore eyes, pains in the limbs etc. It is a pleasant, sweet, soft water, lather immediately with soap, but I could not discover any other appearance, from whence it might receive its healing virtue.

Charles Smith, The Ancient and Present State of the County and City of Cork, 1774

St Bartholomew’s Feast Day is the 24th August. There are seven wells dedicated to this saint in County Cork but sadly this remarkable well was destroyed with the coming of the Cork to Bandon railway in 1849. It is situated near Doughcloyne Bridge and according to Togher Historical Association, is now capped and inaccessible. The Society paid a field trip along the railway embankment in 2015 and believed a small stream flowing into Liberty Stream may be all that remains of the well. I visited in August 2021 and found the bridge easily enough.

A rock strewn slope led downwards. The area is now used as an unofficial dumping ground and is a dispiriting sight. Underneath the bridge has been partly filled in and is full of rubbish.

The Liberty Stream was overgrown and inaccessible and I found nothing that looked well-like. The area around it is still flat fields and it’s easy to imagine how it was once full of tents and

and yelling, dancing, noise and merriment!

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