An Turas: in the footsteps of St Crohane

Tobar an Bhile, St Crohane’s Well near Castle Cove on the Ring of Kerry was the well that originally sparked my interest in Irish holy wells. Way back on the 30th July 1998 (I remember the date exactly as it was my son’s 18th birthday) I left our holiday home in the lashing rain to attend a pattern here. Damp, confused but enthralled I only later understood what was going on. I have since revisited the well several times and have written up my visits but today we were back to do the entire turas, or pilgrimage, for higher up on Coad Mountain there are two more wells dedicated to St Crohane, all once visited on his feast day, 30 July. The pattern was originally a three day affair and dates for the feast day can also be referred to as the 29th July and 1st August. It was originally a Lunasa festival, an ancient gathering to welcome in the harvest, but with the coming of Christianity, was superimposed with a saint’s feast day.

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

We intended to do it correctly and started at Tobar an Bhile, the first well in the pilgrimage. This account, written in the 1930s, has an interesting description of its origins:

According to the old people St. Crohane is the patron saint of this place. The old Church ruins in Coad are dedicated to St. Crohane. The eastern stone has a slap of stone which is cut in the form of a cross. At the end of the ruin is a holy well shaded by a huge ash tree. People pay rounds here on the thirtieth of July which is his feast day. Very long ago there was a man cured there. He was blind but nowadays there are no cures effected there there as it is more for pleasure people go there. Long ago they celebrated Mass in the open air there and long sermons were given on his life. It is said it was near that place he was beheaded by Cromwell’s soldiers and his head rolled and where it rolled a well sprung up. There were several people baptized in the name of Crohane. There was a Crohane Galvin who is now dead. Crohane MacGillicuddy who is still living in America also a Crohane Downing a Crohane Malvey and a Crohane Burns and several others of the name. This parish is known as Kilcrohane parish and so it is called after the saint.

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The huge ash tree, which was once considered holy in its own right, has long gone and may have been where the circlet of trees is now. In this photograph the well is visible in front of it and behind is the Mass Rock.

Leaving the site by a metal gate topped with a cross, the pilgrimage path follows what was once an old butter route and is now part of the Kerry Way walking trail.

The trail wends upwards, today spectacular and green, alive with wildlife and wildflowers. We saw stonechats leaping from post to post luring us away from their nests and the flick of white as a wheatear zipped by; admired a chatter of choughs nesting on a craggy rock and heard the loud honk of a raven as it wheeled above. Shortly after we had started we listened to the angelus bell ring out below in Castle Cove and stopped to ponder.

St Crohane’s Well, Tobar Crócháin, Tobercrohane

The path is craggy but defined, the views enormous, the solitude wonderful and it’s a stiff but enjoyable hike as you head towards the Windy Gap high above on Eagle Hill, sheep the only other pilgrims.

The second well dedicated to St Crohane involves leaving the main route and retracing your steps on a smaller but clearly defined path. The well rarely seems to be mentioned, more interest being shown in the accompanying hermitage :

At Coode are the ruins of the old church, and on a hill about a mile from it is a curious hermitage, hewn out of solid rock, said to have belonged to St Crohane, the patron saint of this parish.

Samuel Lewis, Topographical Dictionary of Ireland, 1837

Often described as St Crohane’s Hermitage it is in fact the remains of a primitive copper mine, first dug out in the Bronze Age, sometime around 1700-1500BC. Its domed profile is the result of fire-setting, a method of extracting ore from by the rock by lighting a fire against an outcrop, causing the the ore to expand and loosen. The ore was then broken from the rock by pounding with tools.

What is most striking is the colour of the walls, still streaked with a green malachite mineralisation. One of the indentations at the back of the cave is said to be an imprint of the saint’s back where he rested, a particularly venerated spot.

In 1756, Charles Smith visited and remarked on an unusual custom:

… the stalactical exudations of the above mentioned cell are held in great estimation by the country people who carefully preserve them, as imagining them to have many virtues in them, from the supposed sanctity of the place.

Charles Smith, The Ancient & Present State of the County of Kerry

There are no signs of any stalactites today but the cave is seemingly fitted out to offer the sheep some shelter, straw on the ground. The well itself has vanished, reported as scarcely visible in the 19th Century, though there seemed a promising damp and reedy patch very near the mine.

Was this it? Once the well was know for the curative powers of its water. The remains of the building close by was apparently used as a forge – now sadly containing the remains of a freshly deceased sheep.

Edit: November 2023. I have since found the well which lies across the stream from the copper mine. It was visited as part of the Skellig Coast Archaeology Festival and I was delighted to find it. The site is actually protected by three somewhat wonky posts and some fencing but has got considerably overgrown.

Clear back some of the ferns and heather and the well can be seen to be small and circular and full of fresh cold water. Most exciting was the presence of a cross-scored stone lying in front of it, testament to the many pilgrims who had performed this turas over the years.

It was easy to imagine the saint sitting up here, surveying the magnificent scenery, enjoying the peace and quite, a stream babbling below him. We ate oranges, the life of a saint seeming most attractive in the June sunshine.

St Crohane’s Well, Tobar na Bearnan, Well of the Gap

The third well in the pilgrimage is also dedicated to St Crohane and is just off the Kerry Way at Windy Gap, close to the summit of Eagle’s Hill. It’s alternative name is Tobar na Bearnan, Well of the Gap. The weather certainly became more lively as we approached, a stiff breeze bouncing off the mountains. High above us we saw another couple ascending Eagle’s Hill the hard way.

The well is covered by a jumble of slabs, arranged as a makeshift cairn, a metal cross protruding from the top. It fits in so well with its surroundings that its almost camouflaged.

A large slab lies in front of the small, fern strewn entrance to the well. The water was fresh and clear and holds a cure for sore eyes. What intrigued me was that I’m sure that the greenery within was phosphorescent, something I’ve only seen once before at Sancreed Well in Cornwall. The startling glowing green there is put down to a high radiation count which is said to induce a pleasant languor!

Here the glow was less impressive but I’m sure it was going on! It was too chilly to linger long to see if it induced a languor, pleasant or not.

To the right of the well a slab was deeply inscribed with crosses, the final station of this bracing pilgrimage.

It seems that the pilgrimage, like many others, was finished with less spiritual celebrations and by the early 1800s the three day pattern was noted for its heavy drinking and faction fighting. This seems fitting as there is a story that St Crohane, a shadowy figure at best, was ejected from Skellig Michael because of his drinking and riotous behaviour. He was put in a boat and landed up near Derrynane, eventually setting up a church on Coad mountain. There’s a colourful description of him in The Book of Skelligs, collected in 2005:

The say St Cróchán was a monk in Skellig and he got very troublesome in Skelligs. Mad for the drink he was, He used give the other monks fierce bother, fighting and things. So they put him in a boat, took away the oars and pushed him off the rock, left him to go to hell, and he landed in Derrynane. And he made off Coad and he started his racket there – building (his church) .. ‘Twas a great night in the Black Shop (castlecove) then – the pattern – there’d be a great crowd there. And any fighting during the year then was postponed until Cróchán’s night would be there, and there would be fights! And they said Cróchán was the cause of it like, that ’twas he that started it. That’s the history of him now He was thrown out of Skellig for fighting.

Scelig Mhichíl & its Saints in Iveragh Folklore by Sean Mac an tSithigh, The Book of the Skelligs, 2022

The pattern was still taking place, albeit more sedately, in the 1940s and included canoe racing at nearby Glenbeg strand. (ITA)

We returned the same way we had come, marvelling at the views and impressed with the pilgrims who had once made this pilgrimage, roughly 11.5km. No doubt some were barefoot.

We completed our day with a quick trip to Staigue Fort, always impressive.

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