Corca Dhuibhne Deep Maps: a collaboration

Just a short blog and an update on recording holy wells in County Kerry and a long overdue mention of the excellent Corca Dhuibhne Deep Mapping project, the inspiration of the Sacred Heart University in Dingle. This ambitious project aims :

to record the geographical, environmental, historical and cultural places on the Dingle peninsula. 

It is using a different approach to do the recording which results in a comprehensive and detailed community project:

This new project, Chorca Dhuibhne / Deep Mapping / Dingle Peninsula, uses the term ‘deep mapping’ as a guiding methodology. The new methodology is one of the newest approaches in environmental humanities that seeks to understand the totality of human cultural heritage as rooted in a place.…This investigation has led to the deep mapping that goes beyond the physical characteristics and includes memories and oral history, folklore, archaeology, weather, and science, with a goal of establishing a multi-layered record of a specific place in relation to its global connections.

The first things to be recorded using this method were holy wells, 59 are listed in the Archaeological Survey for the Dingle Peninsula. In 2022 I was contacted by Billy MacFhlionn, one of the main instigators of the project. He wanted permission to link to the holy wells I had already recorded on the Dingle Peninsula which I happily gave. He explained that during the Covid epidemic he had kept sane by visiting and subsequently recording all the wells I had not yet found. Some were very off the beaten track!

We met up in November 2022 and had a brilliant day out with other enthusiasts, visiting a variety of obscure wells, including some that neither of us had visited before.

Here we are beating back the dense undergrowth looking for St Gobnait’s Well, Tobar an Rúin, also known as Well of the Secrets. The going was tough and we both got soaked but were delighted to find that the little well was still extant.

Since then Deep Maps Kerry has really developed and includes a comprehensive and informative map showing all holy wells on the Dingle peninsula, each graded as to its accessibility – a green dot for those publicly accessible, an orange for limited access, and a red for very difficult to get to or should be considered off limits.

Click on a dot and you are taken to a page for that specific well, which includes excellent and comprehensive information such as historical records. These include:

An Seabhac – Triocha-Céad Corca Dhuibhne

Cuppage– Archaeological Survey of the Dingle Peninsula

Mag Fhloinn – Fieldwork notes and comments by Billy Mag Fhloinn

Ó Danachair – The Holy Wells of Corkaguiney, Co. Kerry

SMR– Notes from the Sites and Monuments Record

Photographs and videos taken by Billy show the state of the well when he visited. There are also interviews, mainly collected by Áine Uí Dhubhshláine and Boscó Ó Conchúir, who donated some of the images, video, and transcriptions they have compiled as part of a photo-ethnographic project called  Ar Thóir na dToibreacha Beannaithe i gCorca Dhuibhne , which began in 2012 and is ongoing.

Further exploration of the site and you will find an extensive bibliography and an essay by leading holy well academic and author, Professor Celeste Ray.

Two year and a half years later later (I’m a slow learner) and I’ve only just realised I could do the same and link to the Deep Mapping site, listing the wells Billy has been to that I haven’t. Billy has kindly given his permission, so now we have a joint collaboration. You will know which are the wells he has visited, as the link leads you straight to the Deep Mapping website. Fortunately for me, many of these wells are the really obscure ones, so Billy has done all the hard work.

The Deep Mapping project has now extended to include megalithic tombs, film locations, archaeology and Corca Dhuibhne 3D (3d models of 30 stone monuments). And humpback whale sightings! What an incredibly valuable and easy to use resources.

I am working on a Sources page at the moment but here are some other holy well audits that have been completed or are ongoing:

County Clare: The Clare Holy Well Project

County Galway: Holy wells in Galway

County Kildare: Holy wells of County Kildare

County Kilkenny: Kilkenny holy wells and mass paths project

County Mayo: Mayo’s holy wells

County Monaghan: Holy Wells of County Monaghan

County Roscommon: Roscommon holy wells

County Tipperary: Tipperary Holy Wells

County Wicklow: Wicklow Wells – Toibreacha Chill Mhantáin

A useful booklet has been produced by the Heritage Council: Holy Wells in Ireland

This website is attempting to list all holy wells on the island of Ireland and invites individuals to submit information about wells: Ireland’s holy wells county by county

Enjoy exploring!