Cill Rialagh: an elusive well on the edge of the world

Still in Kerry and a wild and remote spot on the agenda today – Cill Rialaigh, or Kildreelig, an early ecclesiastical settlement on a small headland, clinging onto the cliffs – with a holy well.

First we were distracted by St Michael’s Well, Tobar Mhíchíl, near Ballinskelligs, visited before but always worth a revisit. We were rather stopped in our tracks by the noticeboard sporting a large central image – isn’t that us, one of us inquired? And on closer inspection Robert was clearly seen with me lurking behind the well. A bit of research and it proved to be Finola’s photo – an acknowledgment would have been nice.

This well is in a magnificent position, clearly signed and approached down a narrow path leading to the cliffs. There was a welcoming party of curious sheep; in fact every well we went on this trip had bold and curious sheep loitering.

Although the main well with its attractive beehive wellhouse is now dry, another has sprung up near it. Around the well stones have been placed flushed with the ground, quite recently I suspect, each inscribed with the name of a different part of the body. The well traditionally holds a cure for lameness and blindness.

On to Bolás Head, the already small roads getting smaller and steeper by the minute. I was glad Robert was driving and we hoped we wouldn’t meet another car. It turned out that the tiny road was being resurfaced but we managed to find a layby and disembarked. What magnificent country, wild and windswept with huge views out to Ballinskelligs Bay. Scattered with the remnants of homesteads, livings had been eked out here until fairly recently.

These images from the National Folklore Photographic Collection date from 1934 and 1935 and show the homesteads with their thatched rooves.

Some of their occupants were also captured, these two in 1928.

We strolled up the road, looking for the early Christian site – described in one guidebook as a jumble of stones amidst many jumbles of stones. Here’s Robert looking like he knows where he’s going!

A roughly made stile led over a rickety fence – we followed suite, a long finger of stone turned out to be one of several elegant cross slabs on the site. This monument is just outside the main site and is usually referred to as being on a leacht, or stone platform.

This proved to be a remarkable place comprising a massive stone built cashel inside which lay the scattered remains of an oratory, a circular hut, three rectangular buildings, another cross-slab and a covered passage, possibly a souterrain.

The sheep in this case were very curious indeed and noisy, nosy and a rather delicate tinge of pink!

But where was the well? This digital image from the Historic Environment Viewer (Archaeological Survey of Kerry) shows the large cashel and the cluster of associated monuments.

The well is the small dot to to the east and is described in the Survey as:

This pool, locally regarded as a holy well, is located a short distance SW of Kildreelig ecclesiastical site in rough pasture which slopes down steeply toward a cliff-edge at E. A small stream issues from the pool, which occurs beneath a massive boulder, and a number of paving slabs are placed in the stream. Remnants of rough walling line one side of the stream and extend N From the top of the boulder. A pattern was formerly held here on Good Friday, but the site has ceased to be visited since the 1930s (local information).

Archaeological Survey for County Kerry, online at archaeology.ie

Followed by the still curious flock of pink sheep, I searched below the cashel and found myself in the wrong field. Back up on the road, Finola and I tried to find access into the correct field, Everywhere seemed full of massive boulders and there was no sign of a pool or small stream though this looked promising.

Sadly we conceded defeat but left wondering at the life the inhabitants of this remarkable site must have had. Others wonder too, for a little further down the headland is the Cill Rialaig Artists’ retreat, founded in 1991, where creative types may escape from the world and stay in homesteads built on the footprints of ruined pre-Famine cabins, using stones from the site but with all modern comforts.

The image below is undoubtedly weird for I inadvertently had my camera on an odd setting for a while and have gone fish-eyed but I have kept it as it seemed to fit the otherworldly feel of this extraordinary corner of Kerry.

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