Forgotten battles and decapitated heads: in search of wells around Lispole (1)

A tale of the powers of research, collaboration and sheer determination! This is the photograph that started it all.

Gail Tangney, a fellow well enthusiast, came across this intriguing display during Feile na Bealtine in Dingle, 2021. It came with a a very short description.

Did I know anything about it? She also posted in the excellent Facebook group Ancient and Holy Wells of Ireland and Conchúr Mag Eagháin responded with the information that two wells with that name could be found in the neighbouring townlands of Com an Lóndraigh, Coumlanders and An Dún Meánach, Doonmanagh near Lispole. The wells were clearly marked on the 25 inch historic OS map but they had no listing in the Archaeological Inventory for Kerry. How intriguing.

Tobar na gCeann, Well of the Heads 1

Covid meant little travelling was possible and although I searched online could find nothing more about these wells. In August this year, 2022, Gail went to the the pattern day at Mary’s Well, Tobar Mhuire, Kinard and met Marie. They got chatting and Marie revealed that she knew of a Tobar na gCeann near Lispole and would be happy to show her. Gail contacted me again but I was just off to New Zealand for six weeks. On my return I messaged Gail who put me in touch with Marie who confirmed she was happy to take us there but warned there was not much to see.

Things developed as they do. Shortly after that I was contacted by Billy Mag Fhlionn from the Sacred Heart University Dingle who is doing a project on deep mapping of the peninsula – more of that in a later blog – and he explained that the first monuments to go on will be holy wells. He revealed that during the restrictions of lockdown he had taken the opportunity to visit every obscure well on the peninsula. Had he been to Tobar na gCeann, I inquired? No, but he would very much like to. Simultaneously I was contacted by Ann Ni Chiobhain who has recently been commissioned to do a series on holy wells for TG4. She too is based in Dingle. You can see where this is going. Meanwhile Marie had contacted Johnny Kelleher, the landowner of the well, who then rang me and confirmed he was happy to show us the well. In the end quite a party of holy well enthusiasts and explorers gathered on Johnny and Eileen’s farm, intent on tracking down the elusive Tobar n gCeann.

Who could remember the way?

The weather was looking unpredictable but we were in good spirits as we set off along the very muddy track.

On the historic 25 inch OS map the well is clearly shown in an area rich with springs. It is named as Tobernagoun, generally referred to as Well of the Heads.

Johnny lead us through fields to a small copse. A stream ran down the side of the site and everywhere was dense with bracken, ivy and goat willow.

The well refused to reveal itself but we gazed at where it should have been.

Johnny said it was usually in evidence but knew little about it other than its name was Tobar na gCeann. He thought there had been a battle in the area long ago and the victors had washed the severed heads of their enemies in it. This fits in nicely with the notice displayed at the Bealtine festival, here translated by Billy:

I dTobar na gCeann a deineadh an t-éirleach agus i nÁth a’ Charbair a marbhuigheadh na céadta. The slaughter was done in Tobernagan and hundreds were killed in Aughacarrible. 

An Seabhac, Tríocha Céad Chorca Dhuibhne 1939

This information originally comes from An Seabhac, meaning the Hawk – the pen name of Pádraig Ó Síochfhradha storyteller, folklorist, politician and activist. Confusingly, logainm.ie the invaluable placenames website, attaches this information to the second well we were about to visit, also called Tobar na gCeann. This first well has no additional archive material supplied except a note saying its name could also possibly be translated as Tobar na Gleann, Well of the Glen.

Tobernagan, Well of the Heads 2

We set off in convoy to track down the second Tobar na gCeann in the adjoining townland of Com an Lóndraigh, Coumlanders. Fortunately Marie also knew the landowner, Michael Griffin, and negotiated introductions. He explained it was another long muddy track, only negotiable by tractor. He offered to take one explorer and Billy was whisked off. He has kindly lent me his field notes and photographs:

Michael Griffin is the landowner, named after his grandfather and great-grandfather. He was reluctant to take too many people up to the site, as the way up was very muddy, and he only had room in his tractor for one. Since I was first to come in the gate, I was fortunate enough to be chosen. As I was riding up in the tractor beside him, he told me a few things about the well. His family employed Fitzgeralds, who now own the hardware shop in Dingle, to build a concrete structure around the well.

The original source was a few metres north west of this, on the west side of the boundary ditch. It is completely covered now though, and some kind of pipe channels the water into a barrel that sits inside the little concrete housing. Its precise original location can’t be seen, lying under grass.

Originally the water openly flowed south-eastwards from the well, which can be seen in older Ordnance Survey maps. He mentioned that it at one time flowed as far as the southern boundary of the field, which is indicated by the old maps, but that they harnessed and controlled the flow as part of land improvement. The water from the well housing now flows in underground pipes eastwards towards two open concrete cisterns in a shallow ditch running across the field, and these in turn feed a reservoir which looks like a small hut. This is the main water supply to the farm below, for both people and animals.

Billy Mag Fhlionn, field notes November 2022

 

This well is also marked on the historic OS maps and named as Tobernagan which is generally taken to mean Well of the Heads.

It seems that is this well that has the rather gory stories attached to it for logainm.ie references two sources. The first is the quote from An Seabhac already given above: The slaughter was done in Tobernagan and hundreds were killed in Aughacarrible.

Billy believes the slaughter refers to a battle between Walter Hussey of nearby Minard Castle and the Cromwellian forces in 1640. This is clarified by this excerpt from Old Kerry Records written in 1872:

(Walter Hussey) Proprietor of Castle Gregory, the Magharees and Ballybeggan before 1641, when having a great party under his command he made a garrison of his own Castle, and being pressed hard by Cromwell’s army he escaped thence in the night with all his men and got into Minard Castle, where he was besieged by Colonels Le Hunt and Sadlier. After some time was spent the English observed that the besieged made use of pewter bullets, whereon powder was laid under the vaults of the Castle, which was blown up with Hussey and his men.

Hickson, Mary Agnes: Selections from Old Kerry Records: Historical & Genealogical, 1872

The second piece of information in logainm.ie comes from the Ordnance Survey Name Books for Kerry, 1841 which states:

The Well of the Heads … from the number of heads taken off by chain shots this well was so called.

What is chain shot you may wonder? It’s a cannon projectile consisting of two balls chained together. It was originally used, mainly in the seventeenth century, against ships but could also be used on land. The balls would whirl out on their trajectories and cut through masts – and humans. What an unpleasant thought. But this fits in precisely with the battering of Minard Castle where the Cromwellian soldiers perched their cannons on an old ring fort and aimed at the castle and it occupants. The ferocity of the bombardment can be illustrated that poor Hussey was identified by one red sock.

So it looks likely that neither Tobar na gCeann had anything to do with the Celts and their habits of decapitation but may have had something to do with a battle in the seventeenth century. Did the Cromwellian victors desecrate a holy well by throwing their enemies’ heads in it? Or did they try to pollute the local water supplies by filling them with heads?

The castle never recovered from the onslaught and remains a gaunt but highly picturesque ruin.

Enroute to our next destination, Marie remembered the location of another well and we stopped to take a look.

Tobar an Charabail, Áth an Charbail

This takes its name from the townland Áth an Charbail, the meaning of which was open to discussion. Was charabail derived from chariot or boulder? Having just been to a site of a possible battle where enemies’ heads were washed or thrown in local wells, chariots still seemed fitting though sadly the wrong date. Incidentally, the Aughacarrible referred to in the An Seabhac quote is this very townland so it’s all somehow connected.

No chariots but there was an enormous boulder still in situ with a spring seeping out from under it, flowing into the ford so that looked plausible.

As we were investigating, Johnny, from the first well, passed by on his quad bike. He had more information and told us that the well had originally been near where the fuchsia bush now is, just behind Billy in the photo below.

Apparently it had a stone well house and there was mention of a cross slab. A trawl of the historic OS map shows the ford and some stepping stones clearly marked on the 25 inch map. A well is marked but it’s further to the west.

Wherever Tobar an Charbail was originally sited it was sadly dismantled around 10 years ago.

Three fascinating wells none of which were probably holy but what a invaluable wealth of local knowledge where one thing can lead to another, where everything seems connected and where everything is worth pursuing and recording.

This was only the start of a long and exciting day well hunting. Part 2 to follow.

Many thanks to the fellow intrepid well hunters: Marie Uí Ghrifiín, Billy Mag Fhlionn, Ann Ni Chiobhain, Peter Clarke and Gail Tangney and for permission to use their photographs. Thanks too to Johnny and Eileen Kelleher, and Michael Griffin for showing us their wells.

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