Views, folklore & a lot of green: St Patrick’s Well, Knockpatrick, Limerick

Close to the sea-drenched well at Barrigone is another well, a very different one, this one 572m above sea level and one of several interconnected monuments.

St Patrick’s Well, Knockpatrick

The site is gated but clearly signed and there is public access.

We decided to go to the summit first and and followed the roughly paved track leading up to the walled cemetery. First we gasped at the views – a clear day and from here we could look out into the Shannon estuary. The series of large buildings are the Aughinish Alumina factory, a Russian owned enterprise refining imported bauxite into alumina which is shipped to France and Sweden, then smelted to make aluminium.

The graveyard is an old one and chockablock with interesting graves …

… and the remains of an ancient church said to have been founded by St Patrick.

A shelter containing an altar looks out onto the Shannon, presumably used on the pattern day.

Just outside the enclosure is an intriguing monument, square-shaped, walled with a cross on top called the Suíochán Pádraig, St Patrick’s Seat or Stone.

It was from here that St Patrick, too busy to actually actually visit, blessed the entire County of Clare:

It is said locally that while staying at Knockpatrick St Patrick blessed Co Clare. He knelt down at the highest point of the hill, gazed northward across the Shannon at the County, stretched out his hands and said ‘My blessing over to you.’ He did this because he intended going to the north of Ireland as soon as possible and therefore would not have an opportunity of visiting Clare.

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At a talk I was at recently in Rathkeale, they assured me it was Kerry he blessed! When he arose from his prayers, Patrick left the imprints of his knees on a stone. Sadly this has not survived because:

Twenty years ago at the time of the Anglo Irish war, a party of Black and Tans were carrying out a round up in this district. In the course of their search, a party of them went up to Knockpatrick. They noticed the isolated flat stone, and growing suspicious that it might be hiding an arms dump, took it up out of its place. In doing this they broke the stone, and a portion of it was never seen since.

Ibid

Today the interior is cemented but there are little humps and bumps of stones visible but what they are is not clear though they do look like kneeprints.

It’s an evocative spot and the view is stunning but we wend our way back up to the summit and then down again on the other side to visit the well.

The well is on the west side of Knockpatrick Hill and has an interesting origin story:

Knockpatrick is a hill about a mile and a half to the west of Shanagolden. During his missionary tours through Ireland, St. Patrick stopped for some time at the top of this hill, and founded a Church there. The ruins of this Church are still to be seen there, and beside them is a Holy well, the waters of which (according to a local tradition) were blessed by St. Patrick. According to this tradition also, the well sprung up in a miraculous way. It says that after having built the Church he was searching the summit of the hill for a spring, so that he might found a holy well. Failing to find one, he was very disappointed, and knelt down to pray to God for guidance. After spending some time praying, he stood up, and water sprung up from the spot on which he knelt.

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Like many of the wells in County Limerick, this is not in its original position having moved when a woman tried to wash clothes in it though this entry in the Schools’ Folklore Collection gives a different and odd reason for its moving:

Once upon a time the people in Knockpatrick were killing a bull. When the bull was dead they went down to the well for to wash their hands. The Well at that time was inside the gate next morning the well was about half mile up in the hill.

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Tobar Phadraig is clearly signed and getting to it involved:

… a clamber over the wall

… and a walk across the fields.

Like many wells so far visited in County Limerick, it’s in its own small walled enclosure, clearly defined in the landscape. Entrance is through a gateway leading into the sacred interior. The wellhouse is made from cement and gabled, and above a large shrine contains a life-size statue of the saint.

The large roughly oval well is under the shrine but the water seeps out into rectangular stone-lined basin, with benches on either side of the water. I suspect this was once used for total immersion and baptism. A painted over donation box looks a little neglected. I wonder if it was this one:

Long ago it is said that some man put up a money box at the well at Knockpatrick one end was for silver and the other end for pennies. He made a lot of money. The box was painted green and yellow. Someone told the Priest that there was a money box up at the well, and he sent someone up for it, but when he got up, it was gone. The man’s name was never found out’

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It looks like the whole structure might once have been painted green, now just the niche behind the cross is still emerald.

There is still plenty of water though and it holds a cure for sore eyes.

The most auspicious day to visit is of course St Patrick’s Day, 17th March, when rounds are still paid at the well, traditionally taking in the old church on the summit and St Patrick’s Stone on the hillside:

St. Patrick’s day is ’rounds’ day at this well. A great crowd gathers there to perform the ’rounds’. Each person takes up seven small stones. The ’rounds’ are done by walking round the well seven times. During such rounds the pilgrim says a Pater, Ave, and Gloria, and when he comes in front of the well at the end of each circuit, he throws one of the pebbles on the ground. Therefore the reason for using the pebbles is to ensure the correct number of circuits is made. Prayers are also said in the ruins of the old church. Generally a decade of the Rosary. At one time people also visited Knockpatrick on the eve of St. Patrick’s day, and performed the rounds there, but the custom has gone out of use for a long time. Many of the old people in the locality consider that the most efficacious form of devotion at this well. was to make the rounds, both on the eve of St. Patrick’s day. and on the feast day itself. Pilgrims also leave tokens near the well, such as medals, ribbons, bandages, articles of clothing, crutches, etc.For the past few years the priests of the parish have organised a pilgrimage of parishioners to Knockpatrick on St. Patrick’s day. The crowd gathers in the afternoon at a spot about 300 yards from the summit of the hill. They march in a procession to the ruined church, and then in a circle round it, singing hymns all the time. They then gather round the well and a priest recites the Rosary.

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The path around the well used for rounding is still there but much overgrown.

Caoimhin Ó Danachair visited in the early 1950s and his photo looks familiar but different. The circular wall is in place but the shrine has yet to be erected.

There is a statue of the saint but it’s a rather sorry looking one. The wellhouse is in situ and appears to be painted, I wonder if it was green.

Ó Danachair collected many stories connected with the well including how St Patrick forget his prayer book and it was found by a raven; how a druid tried to poison St Patrick here and how St Patrick once put a curse on sinners but this was later transferred to birds, a dead bird sometimes being found at the well on certain days of the year – this sounds very like the story at St Molua’s Well in Ardagh. In another forgetful moment the patron saint also lost a gold chalice which was later found and kept at the well until 1785 when a member of the O’Niadh (Neville) family, the stewards of the site of Knockpatrick, pledged it to a Mr Roche of Limerick. It ended up in Paris where it was last heard of in 1840.

A fascinating place full of folklore and stunning scenery.

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