Sunday’s Well, Lisloose: A Cautionary Tale

An unexpected meeting with fellow holy well enthusiast Gail Tangney led to an enjoyable whizz around Tralee inspecting three wells. First we had an excellent coffee and bun in the wonderful Madden’s coffee shop.

It was even Infant of (Pride) Prague themed!

Refreshed we leapt in our cars and headed to Lisloose.

Sunday’s Well, Tobar Rí an Domhnaigh, Lisloose

Sited in open fields until fairly recently, Sunday’s Well was once much revered although it’s origins were bleak as this entry from the Schools’ Folklore Collection describes:

There is one holy well in the parish. It is situated on the road to Listellick. People visit the well on Sundays. Rounds are performed there and prayers are said. There was a church near the well in the old days. One Sunday morning the priest was serving Mass to the people. He was captured by English soldiers and shot. The soldiers then took him and buried him. Afterwards a well sprung up where he was buried. This well has nothing to do with a Saint. Many people have been cured of sore eyes. When people go to the well they rub the water to their eyes. There is a tree near the well and when people are coming away they tie strings and medals to it. There is money also driven into the tree.

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The well was evidently popular and noted for its healing and for its rag tree:

There is a well in Michael Collins’s farm of Lisloose called Sunday’s Well. In the early penal times there was a priest slain there and a beautiful blackthorn tree grew up where he was slain. Also a well appeared there. People have rounds there every year. The sounds are generally performed as a cure for sore eyes. They must be performed between cock crow and the dawn of day in order to get cured. The rounds used to be performed some time during September. When people go there they leave something after them such as a rag, a hair pin, or a few pence. When performing the rounds you must slowly walk around the well saying your three rosaries. Long ago there was a cover for the well and the keys for this cover are inscribed in a stone of the high wall on the right hand side of the road from Tralee to Abbeydorney near the well. A big Protestant named Collins lived in the Park wood nearby, tried to get water out of this holy well by attaching a large pipe to it from his large residence, but, the water refused to flow beyond the field where the well is located.

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There is another strange story relating to its origins. A landlord (was it the same one who tried to pipe the water to the mill?) tried to steal the elaborately carved altar away from Wethers’ Well, Tobar na Molt, in Ardfert:

… the story is than an enemy (Cromwellian) once used an ox cart to take it away from the well. When the cart had got as far as Bullock Hill, it stopped and the oxen refused to move any further, so it was left on the spot until the next morning. Then, to the surprise of some people, the stone was found moved back to its original place near the well.

Patrick Logan, The Holy Wells of Ireland, 1980

Caoimhín Ó Danachair in his The Holy Wells of North Kerry, 1958, reports that the well sprang up where the bullocks ground to a halt. The remarkable Altar is safely back where it should be in Ardfert.

Sunday’s Well is also thought to have been the fountain referred to in the famous song the Rose of Tralee:

The pale moon was rising above the green mountain
The sun was declining beneath the blue sea
When I strayed with my love to the pure crystal fountain
That stands in beautiful vale of Tralee.

In 2000 an archaeological investigation was carried out in the area surrounding the well prior to a housing estate being built in the fields. This photo shows what the well looked like at the time. It’s obviously in a fairly dilapidated state but an arched vault can clearly be seen in the background with a large slab covering the well in the foreground, a smattering of stones around the structure.

A full investigation was carried out – the report can be seen here. The photo below shows the well cleared and recorded. The stone constructed vault over the well is clearly revealed, as is the large slab plus supporting stones. Water appears to flow under the slab.

Another feature noted in the report lay 20m to the SE of the well. This was excavated and may have been a mill, as shown on the historic OS 6 inch map. A drain was noted that may have originated at the holy well – was this the work of the landowner again?

Building eventually commenced on the eight acre site with 110 homes being built. In 2016, concerns were raised by residents on the estate as to the safety of the well. This photograph shows how it was then, the arched vault and slab clearly seen though the interior is rammed with rubbish, mainly old bottles and cans.

The County Council decided to, as they saw, it, make the well safe. The vault was flattened and the stone arch was removed.

Unfortunately the council did not take into account that holy wells are protected monuments and any work carried should be under the advice of the National Monuments’ Service. Public outcry was strong and media reports damning.

The stone arch was hastily reinstalled though the vault was more or less flattened and the slab was replaced flush with the ground. A grill was placed over the well itself.

As respected folklorist Eddie Lenihan commented:

If they put a grill over the well this is bound to ruin the well’s purpose. If it’s a blessed well, how are people going to use it if there’s a grill over it? A Holy Well is there for the purpose of cures and if the council put a grill over it, it defeats this purpose. Normally, wells were associated with curing eye ailments and the council should leave a space between the bars so that people could at least get at the water.  

The Kerryman, 6 August, 2016

Today the well remains incongruous, adrift in a green space in the middle of the housing state named after it. The drain can still be seen coming from the well heading towards the outline of the other feature.

The well remains covered, there is a grille within a grille.

It is impossible to access the water which is till abundant.

And still full of rubbish.

The original stile to the fields remains intact.

Gail then took us on a whistle stop tour of two other wells, neither holy but both interesting and worth recording.

Moydore Well, Tobar Mui Doire

A simple plaque on the ground refers to Moydore Well (spelled in a large variety of ways).

One theory as to how it got its unusual name is described here:

At the time of the Spanish Armada, there was a Spanish coin called Moyder (worth about £2) found near a well at the corner of Dean’s Lane. Ever since the locality is called Moyderwell.

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A plaque confirms the story.

Literally just around the corner is another well with a long history.

The Draw Well

This was the well for the Fever Hospital which once occupied this site and was designed to hold 60 unhappy souls. It was attached to the workhouse. Another smart plaque commemorates the fact.

From our brief visit to Tralee it looks like a fascinating place with many hidden corners well worth exploring.

Many thanks to Gail Tangney for showing us the wells and to Neilus O Shea for the additional information and photos.