Sunday in the Woods

After an excellent few days around Kilmallock enjoyed with the Roaringwaters, we thought we could fit in one more well before returning home. From the OS map this looked quite hike, a long track leading up towards the Ballyhoura mountains, the track then seeming to stop.

Ever intrepid, the sun shining on a bright frosty morning we sensibly donned our wellies and set forth. The track was long, straight and incredibly muddy!

The pot holes were like small lakes and at some points we had to teeter on the muddy, bramble clustered edges. And then the path stopped. First we had to cross a stream. At this point Finola thought she had reached her capacity for excitement but we persuaded her on and hoicked her across a stream!

The woodland now was dense, the trees tall and mossy, brambles and woodbine proving treacherous at foot level. We hacked our way on, passing odd signs – bears?

In a small clearing was an astounding sight. A mossy earthen bank, a post bearing a motley selection of cups and a smattering of statues. We had found Tobar rí an Domhnaigh, Sunday’s Well.

We ventured closer, a muddy opening in the bank giving access to the interior.

In 1966, Tom Comber, a local man, cleaned around the well and erected a little shrine which contained statues, medals and rosary beads. There was no sign of the shrine today but plenty of statues including a rather unnerving headless BVM.

The well is a spring, gushing up from underground, clear and fresh tumbling over the red sandstone. The water is exceptionally clear and cold and holds a cure for sore eyes. The enclosure is said to have been deliberately built in the in the shape of an eye, in thanks for a cure. Was this also the work of Tom Comber? It is also believed that the well was stone-lined by a grateful father whose daughter had a fall from her horse and suffered some sort of head injury. Upon bathing her head and forehead with the waters she was restored.

The water emerges outside the enclosure and disappears down into the undergrowth. There may have been nine original wells but there’s little evidence of them today though the whole area is very wet.

This entry from the Schools’ Folklore Collection has a little more information:

There is a well up in the side of the mountain and it is called Tobarine Domnaig. It is situated in one of Jim Shea’s fields. Long ago it was visited by people from all over the country for to cure their eyes but now only the people of the locality visit it. When the people used to visit it long ago they used to leave bits of rags tied to a bush long side the well. Now the people leave medals there.

SFC:056:0509

Some signage at the site describes the pilgrimage:

Then, and until quite recently, on summer days, little groups would set off through ‘blossomed furze unprofitably gay’, to take the water at the Well. These visits were real pilgrimages, and were seen, by those growing old as a challenge to prove that you were still ‘lufar’ (active) enough. My uncle, on a holiday from the U.S.A. in 1979, visited the Well before returning to Chicago – he was then almost 80. He directed me to drink the water three times and to throw the ‘drib’ each time into the stream which flowed from the Well.

Signage at the well

You still need to be pretty lufar to visit this atmospheric and fascinating site!

 The location of this well can be found in the Gazetteer.