Serendipitous things often occur when looking for holy wells.
St Finbarr is patron saint of Cork and his feast day is 25th September. The main pattern has always been at Gougane Barra, the site where he built his original cell, and an open air Mass is held on the Sunday nearest to this date. This year, 2025, was a special Jubilee Year of Hope with open air confessions, the rosary and Mass on offer, Bishop Fintan Gavin officiating. I went along, the day bright and sunny and the crowds massive, the atmosphere reverent yet festive.
I was a little disappointed that the holy well, dedicated to St Finbarr, was not bedecked with flowers as it had been on previous occasions and not many people seemed to be taking the water, but those that did were enthusiastically taking bottlefuls.
On the actual feast day I revisited two other wells on the outskirts of Dunmanway, both dedicated to St Finbarr and presumably on an original pilgrim path. At the first, also called Tobar na Daibchne or Well of the Hollows, the gate appeared freshly whitewashed and welcoming but inside the grass was wildly overgrown and the well hard to reach though full of water.
The Irish Tourism Association Survey (ITA) from the 1940s has this information about it:
Adjacent to the churchyard. Rounds are paid here by a number of local people on the 25th September each year. A decade is paid at four marks around the well, whilst the fifth decade is repeated in the cemetery. The usual offerings are affixed to bushes around the well. (ITA, Dunmanway Parish)
Although there were rags and offerings at the entrance and at the hawthorn tree leading down to the well it was impossible to spot the four marks, or humps around the well.
Onwards to a third well dedicated to St Finbarr, and the focus of the blog. I have followed the very mixed fortunes of this little wayside well since 2016 and this follows on from my previous blog about well restoration and its potentially layered complications and arguments. When I visited in September 2016 I was blown away by the secretive and dense beauty of the Glen of Comeraportera yet horrified by the rubbish that had been dumped everywhere, including a burnt out car.
The well, when I eventually found it, was also a shock, a large bag of rotting nappies carelessly thrown beside it. The well itself was a rectangular basin, defined by flat slabs of stone in a semi-circular shape. The water was abundant and clear,
When I next visited in October 2020 I was again shocked, this time by how many trees had been toppled: the whole place looked post-apocalyptic.
Someone had made sure that the well was not damaged though and a hand-painted sign announced its presence.
The well itself was completely strewn with foliage.
After a little gentle clearing it still looked pretty forlorn, the water scarce and muddy. I wasn’t too optimistic about its future.
Yet I knew that there were people out there who cared for it and I often wondered who they were. When I visited this time, I was astonished to see that a large rectangle of dense foliage had been cleared around the well and the marking slabs by the roadside neatly revealed – some impressive and spiky work. This had surely been done in honour of the saint’s day.
When I went down the two steps making up a stile, I found the well had also been cleaned, the roughly rectangular basin full of clean water.
Neatly place on the lintel were three very rusty coins, one an English penny dated 1947, and a tiny sliver of delph with a pink pattern.
No sooner had I updated my original blog on this well and posted these photos than I was contacted by Sarah who was amazed to see I had been to the well. She revealed that since moving to this area a few years ago she had been drawn to the well and had on several occasions tried unsuccessfully to find it. She had been delighted to come across the recent clearing and had carefully cleared around the well, scooping out some of the debris, preserving the coin offerings. She had no idea it was the week of St Finbarr’s feast day and took this as a sign!
We arranged a rendezvous at the well. She kindly invited Finbarr (another bit of serendipity) who has lived in the area for over 40 years, his family occasionally taking on custodian duties of the well. Nothing can compare with first hand descriptions from people who are directly connected to a holy well and he kindly shared some of his knowledge and memories. He described how he used to walk past it every day on his way home from school with his friends, a good mile up from the main road where they were dropped by the bus. By the time they reached the well, the children were always thirsty and he recalls the water being good and cold. Sometimes his family would clear around the well, especially when the feast day was approaching. He didn’t think there was any particular cure associated with well nor any special prayers but he recalled how people left coins as offerings. His mother had told him how Mass was once held down in Dunmanway and then the pilgrims would process up here. He described an interesting story associated with it: St Finbarr and a group of monks were travelling from Bandon to Gougane Barra. They first stopped at the well near town and then made their way up to this well where they all rested for the night. In the morning it was found that one of the brothers had died and he was buried a little down from the well on the other side of the road. Until the trees were knocked down, Finbarr said it was easy to find the grave which was marked by a headstone -a rectangular field stone, set upright. Two large fir trees stood at the side of the road and because the area was then densely wooded nothing grew underneath the trees so it was easy to locate the stone. Now it’s impossible to get to it but Finbarr knew exactly where it was and pointed out a dense circlet of coppiced birch trees.
Sarah was anxious whether the stones found near the well, now piled near the water, were part of the original structure and whether they should be replaced. We consulted my image from 2016 and they looked authentic.
However, Finbarr though they had been put there relatively recently for he remembered the well originally seeped out from under the large lintel, still in situ, and went off into the slope with no stones defining its shape. Other changes occurred about 20 years ago when the road was widened and tarmacked. It sounds as though there was once a much larger slabbed area, a bit like a platform, on the roadside with three steps going on into the well – today there are only two. Finbarr explained that the ground level was originally much lower and he thought there might be one large slab at the bottom of the well. I wonder if the stones around the well were placed here at the same time.
The well was once visited by people from the nearby townland of Coolkelure and this is referenced in an entry in the Schools’ Folklore Collection. Joan Collins, aged 12, collected this information from 60 year old Patrick Collins:
Coolkelure is the next townland to Inch. It is situated about four miles and a half west of Dunmanway. There is a holy well at the side of it, but it is now covered with briars and bushes . Its origin is unknown. There are three steps going in to it, and there are medals, pieces of cloth and pennies up on a stone over the well. About twenty feet in from it, there are rocks nearly a thousand feet high. It is said that a giant lived there in olden times. On the other side of the road is a marsh and the giant is supposed to be buried there. There is a huge stone over his grave. Further on there is a grave quite close to Coolkelure House. This formerly belonged to the Shouldhams, now it is the property of Lady Bandon. The avenue looks beautiful in the summer and is hedged with rhododendrons of every hue, It is a delightful walk on a summers evening. It is surrounded by mountains in the north, It was selected as a sanatorium some time agon, but on account of it being too far from railway communication it was not built there. There are twelve houses, a shop and a church in Coolkelure. (SFC: 014:0304)
It sounds as though the well was already neglected by the 1930s and here the grave is described as belonging to a giant. After visiting the well Sarah took me on a quick tour of Coolkelure, a little oasis amongst the woods with its big house, lodge gate, school and church all in flamboyant Gothic style, offering a glimpse into another world. The demesne was once owned by the Countess of Bandon.
The ITA reckons the well was once included in the estate but has very little to say about it:
St Finbarr’s Inch: Actually this well is on the Coolekilure estate. Locally it is known as a holy well but no rounds are paid. Information on the date of former round is not available. (ITA, Dunmanway Parish)
So the lure of holy wells and a little bit of serendipity and you never know who you might find or the information you might gather! I think St Finbarr’s Well has a bright future.
What a hopeful find! The well has been resurrected indeed.