In the Wake of St Finán

How nice to be out and about in County Kerry after a long enforced lockdown due to Covid-19. We spent a few days in Waterville on the Iveragh Peninsula mainly in pursuit of St Finán Cam. This elusive and complex saint is fascinating and may need a blog to himself at some point for he pops up all over the place, as described in this entry from the Schools’ Folklore Collection:

St Finian Cam was a pupil of St Brendan. He is sometimes confused with St. Finian the Leper but the general opinion is that the latter never visited Kerry. St. Finian Cam founded monasteries at Lough Currane near Waterville at Innisfallen Island in Loch Lein and at Muckross. It is also believed that it was he who founded the Monastery at Aghadoe. He, as was then customary, visited many of the Monastic schools then numerous in Ireland. The ruin of his Cell can still be seen in Church Island in Lough Currane. A secret Causeway connected his cell with the mainland; and Folklore has it that he often visited the mainland through this secret Causeway. His feast occurs on the 7th April .

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I will leave further musings for another time but this blog has a little more information .

St Finán’s Well, Tobar Fhionáin

We arrived in our airbnb on the lakes of Lough Currane and the evening was beautiful. We decided to visit the first well on the agenda, St Finán’s Well, Tobar Fhionáin, very close to where we were staying. We negotiated the tiny, foxglove-strewn roads following the lake, finally parking by an abandoned homestead.

The well is on private land and permission should be sought to visit it – happily given. The walk up towards the farm is steep, the views opening up to take in the panorama of the lake below.

The well lies within a circular enclosure below the farmhouse, an enormous ash tree, reputed to be over 200 years old, overhanging it. A stone wall surrounds the site entered through a gate.

The well was unexpectedly beautiful and striking. For some reason I had assumed there wasn’t much remaining and was delighted to see the elongated beehive shaped wellhouse. Made out of chunky blocks of limestone, it is topped with a vertical stone deeply etched with a cross.

A sprinkling of coins lies on the small ledge beneath it.

The entrance to the well is small and rectangular.

The water is abundant and clear and said to hold a cure for sore eyes. A trout resides within, the grandmother of the present owner once saw it.

Rounds were paid three times around the well and then six times around the walled area – the current wall was built about 80 years ago by grandfather of the landowner. The whole area is very wet but so beautiful today with the riot of lilies.

Once there was a three day pattern here centred around St Finán’s feast day. The Archaeological Inventory gives the date for this as the 16th March which is actually the feast day of St Finán the Leper, St Finán Cam’s feast day being the 7th April but the two are frequently muddle or interchanged. As was often the case, things got so riotous after the devotions that when a man was eventually killed, the pattern was stopped. Today the well still receives a few visitors but the pattern has not been held for some time.

The next day we were privileged to be taken out to Church Island by Tom O Shea, whose grandparents had lived up here and cared for the well and whose brother now takes on the responsibility. What an experience this turned out to be.

Church Island, Lough Currane

Lough Carrane, also known as Lough Luíoch, or the Enchanted Isle, is a large lake just outside Waterville, best known to anglers. It also contains several little islands, one of which is called Church Island where St Finán is said to have founded a monastery in the 6th century and where he is buried. There’s an interesting story regarding its origins:

Lough Currane is eight miles in circumference & contains several Islands on one of which-Church Island- are the remains of a Church erected in the sixth century by St. Finian Cam. The Saint’s bee-hive house is almost intact. It appears that Lough Currane was at first only a spring well with a huge cover, which was supposed to be always on save when local people took water from it & according to folklore a certain woman, through carelessness on her part, forgot to cover the well when she took a bucket of water & the result was that the well overflowed, drowned her & formed present Lough Currane.

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Six of us were ferried out to the island in three trips by Tom on a glorious day. It became obvious that, purely by chance, I had found the right man for the trip. He owns the island! He knows a lot about it. I asked if he would care to be our guide. He very kindly said yes.

The journey across is a short seven or eight minutes but what treasures lay ahead: two very different churches, 11 decorated cross slabs, three leachta or saints’ beds, numerous lumps and bumps, a few sheep and abundant wildflowers.

The oldest building on the island dates from the 6th century and is an oratory, known as St Finán’s Cell. It is made out of enormous blocks of sandstone, the roof once beautifully corbelled.

At the other end of the island are the remains of a 12th century Romanesque church, full of rich decorative details, though many now severely worn.

Inside are some remarkable cross slabs, taken from their original positions and placed on the walls of the church. There is also a depictions of a a musician playing a bowed lyre. This is a replica sadly and many of the details clearly seen on the original are lost.

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There are three leachta or saints’ beds including this one with a chunky pillar stone in the centre.

St Finán himself is said to lie in this square shrine.

What a very peaceful and scenic place for a monastery. The last monks left after the turmoil of the Reformation and today the only inhabitants are sheep who keep the grass down, and grey lagged geese who poo everywhere!

What a wonderful experience, much enhanced by our genial guide.

Caherlehillan shrine

We completed the day with a visit to the shrine of another saint. High up in wildly scenic country a few miles out of Cahersiveen is this remarkable square shrine bedecked with quartz.

There may have been a small wooden church here as early as the mid 5th century – its position now marked by wooden posts. This corner-post shrine is later, the elaborate resting place of the founder saint whose name no longer survives.

The two cross slabs are especially wonderful – the one on the left bearing a Latin cross with C shaped scrolls, and the other with a perky bird engraving, usually interpreted as a peacock, above a Maltese cross.

Between 1994 and 2004 the site was excavated by students from University College Cork’s Department of Archaeology: their report contains more information. Nearby is a well, probably not holy! But you never know.

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The locations of the well can be found in the Gazetteer.

Sincere thanks to Tom O Shea for giving so freely of his time and knowledge.