A Decade in the Field

Unbelievably is seems that ten years have passed since I first ventured out, rather naively it has to be said, on my quest to visit and record the state of the holy wells in County Cork. My original motives were curiosity and a desire to see a bit more of the county, a good project for my recent retirement. I hadn’t really thought it through and wasn’t expecting to be so entranced and absorbed by my peregrination. When I set out I knew very little about the traditions or folklore surrounding holy wells nor about the attendant rituals and etiquette. I’ve had my eyes opened in all respects.

My first official sortie was on St Brigid’s day 2016 and my chosen well was of course dedicated to St Brigid – an obscure well in a beautiful situation overlooking Lough Hyne, West Cork. As has often been the case over the years, I was accompanied by Himself and my other partners in exploration, Roaringwater Journal, who kindly helped launch the project.

This particular well is a double bullaun stone, the scoops said to have been made by St Brigid’s knees as she knelt down to pray.

Since then I have visited over 600 wells, first meandering around the potential 358 holy wells in County Cork and then being lured into County Kerry where 180 wells awaited. Invitations to talk in County Limerick meant I’ve also nipped across the border on several occasions – 159 holy wells there.

I have visited every part of Counties Cork and County Kerry – stomped across fields, waded through streams, clambered up mountains, snooped in gardens, teetered on the edge of cliffs, got stuck on barbed wire, slid down ropes and encountered bulls and yappy dogs.

In 2019 I climbed Mount Brandon on the last weekend in July, Garland Sunday, the second highest mountain in Ireland (probably) and yes, there is a well on the summit, dedicated to St Brendan. It’s that rather unassuming hollow below being enjoyed by the children.

Along the way I have been privileged to meet some wonderful people from well custodians to academics; researchers to rambling men; fellow explorers to well restorers; dog walkers to poets; orthodox priests to spiritual healers; musicians to local historians; farmers to ferrymen; students to pilgrims and artists to druids.

I have to give a special shout out to Carrignavar in North Cork, where I received the warmest of welcomes and a huge amount of good-natured assistance – at one point I reckon there were 12 people on their mobile phones trying to contact the owner of Sunday’s Well. Mike (and I do hope I have your name right) was eventually tracked down and made a special trip to show me the well. The well, dry when I visited, is renowned for a stone slab carved with crucifixion scene, probably dating from the late 18C.

One of the most incredible explorations and another example of generosity of spirit was my hunt for St Erc’s Well, in a truly wild setting on Kerryhead, North Kerry. This was my third attempt to find the well and I knew that tradition required a member of the Corridon family to help me find it. Michael, fortunately a Corridon, was busily engaged with a tractor but kindly dropped everything he was doing, grabbed his wellies and led me on an exceptionally adventurous trek across the cliffs to the well. That was pretty exciting but even more thrilling was later being invited to see the bulley, a stone traditionally used to activate the powers of the well.

As my enthusiasm grew so did my experience. I learnt about earlier researchers such as folklorist Caoimhín Ó Danachair who surveyed the wells in North Kerry, the Dingle Peninsula and County Limerick in the 1940s/50s; pored over the four volumes of Historical and Topographical Notes etc by Colonel James Grove White, a founder member of the Cork Historical and Archaeological Society (CHAS) who visited and documented every townland in North Cork in the early 1900s, including holy wells; and attempted to decipher John Ó Donovan’s invaluable handwritten notes in his Ordnance Survey notebooks from 1840.

The two images below show St Mary’s Well, Tullylease – the one on the left from is from 2016 and the one on the right by Colonel Grove White, 1907.

I was delighted when the National Folklore Collection went online, including the Schools’ Collection. This is an absolute treasure trove. In the late 1930s, 5000 National Schools in the Irish Free State where invited to take part in an extensive questionnaire on their local community. The older children, all 50,000 of them, were invited to interview older members of the community on a huge range of topics – including holy wells. The result is a myriad of rich and colourful stories about moving wells, vengeful wells, benign wells, foolish Protestants, faction fighting, cures galore, saintly apparitions and generally a lot of awe and wonder, the entries often in the children’s own handwriting. The example below was collected by Kathleen Power from her mother Mrs Eileen Power, and describes three wells around Buttevant, North Cork. Lady’s Well and St Brigid’s Well remain.

I was also excited to come across the treasury that is the Tourist Association Topographical and General Survey (ITA), conducted nationwide in the 1940s, with comprehensive entries for both Cork and Kerry. As the name suggests, this was mainly an information gathering audit about potential sites of interest for tourists but areas of research included: Antiquities; Customs & Patterns; Spas and Mineral springs, and contain much information and occasional drawings and photographs. The example below is Surfeit Well near Ballinspittle, West Cork – 2016 on the left, 1945 on the right.

I have been invited to give talks, written a book (Holy Wells of County Cork, a limited edition of 1000 copies now out of print), hosted workshops, taken groups out on well explorations, penned articles and given interviews. Two highlights stand out. I spent a damp St Valentine’s Day 2023 in a remote field in East Cork in the company of the late and much lamented Manchán Magan – and a film crew!

My small contribution was part of the very well received TG4 series on holy wells, Ag Triall ar an Tobar, highly recommended if you haven’t seen it and now with an added poignancy. Later, I was delighted to hear that Manchán was referencing my work in his show Listen to the Land Speak.

In 2024 I was invited to collaborate with artist Marie Brett on an ambitious community art project based on healing in the wells in Counties Cork and Kerry which resulted in a short arthouse film, Well, Well, Well, shown at Siamsa Tire, Tralee and Working Artist Studios in Ballydehob. Wonderful to work with another very professional team, including two young dancers and a choreographer.

It was also very special to become friends with the custodians of the four wells we worked closely with on the project: James at Tubrid Well, Millstreet and Maureen at Lady’s Well, Rockspring, both in County Cork; and Tim-Joe at St Michael’s Well, Lixnaw and Annmarie and Richard at Tobar na Molt, in County Kerry. They could not have been kinder and more helpful, nor more proud of their wells.

We completed the project with an event at Tubrid Well for Culture Night, 2024. 70 people attended, and floated handmade votives on the well in memory of loved ones. It was an extraordinarily moving event. No one wanted to leave.

But it’s not about me, though it’s been pretty amazing how things have taken off, it’s about the wells. I’ve learnt a few things:

Holy wells are everywhere. Someone remarked that you are never further than half a days walk to a well, I reckon you’re closer than that! The statistics are sobering though. Very broadly speaking just under a third of all wells in both Cork and Kerry have vanished – there’s no sign of them. One third have been abandoned- they are still there but in various states of dilapidation with no sign that they had received visitors in the near past; and just over a third are still active and visited. I think these statistics probably could be applied to the whole country.

However, the good news is is that’s there’s a definite renewal of interest and appreciation in holy wells with many counties carrying out audits, and individuals and groups working to search out and care for holy wells in their communities. At Trinity Well, Castleventry in West Cork, the community came together to restore the well which had just about vanished under layers of vegetation. The pattern day, Trinity Sunday, has since been revived and the last time I attended nearly 100 people turned up.

A similar story can be told in Glanworth, North Cork where local people have worked very hard to restore their unique and attractive well. It was recently reblessed in August 2025.

In Kilbrogan near Bandon, a group are actively promoting the importance of two wells found side by side in the town park, encouraging local people, including schools, to get involved. Katie from Wise Water and I took a group of transition year students from Kilbrogan College and Bandon Grammar School to the wells on St Brigid’s Day, 2023 in a time honoured tradition.

Sometimes it’s just enthusiastic individuals who get things moving such as Deirdre who identified the long forgotten Firkin Well, Tobar na bhFirciní, near Myrtleville and kindly invited me to go and take a look, somewhere I would never have found on my own.

Over in Kerry, the Deep Mapping Kerry project has been busy researching and recording the cultural heritage of the Dingle Peninsula – including holy wells. One of the co-ordinators, Billy MagFhlionn, and I have collaborated to a certain extent and between us have visited and recorded most of the holy wells in this beautiful part of the world. The Deep Mapping project gives each well its own page which includes photos and any links, including information collected by the photo-ethnographic project  Ar Thóir na dToibreacha Beannaithe i gCorca Dhuibhne. The search for St Gobnait’s Well, also known as Tobar Rúin, or the Well of Secrets, lived up to its name!

It should be noted that Holy wells are protected monuments. Should you be interested in restoring a local well, please seek advice from your local heritage officer/archaeologist or contact the National Monuments Service.

Along the way I have become immersed in the folklore and traditions surrounding holy wells. I have encountered a whole host of local and colourful native saints – in County Cork over 60 individuals have wells dedicated to them. There are saints who petrify, saints who curse, saints who are embarrassed when showing their ankles, wilderness saints who take their abstemiousness to extreme, saints who wander, saints who can talk whilst in the womb, saints who can raise the dead, saints with dodgy tempers and saints who mar their beauty by plucking out their eyes! The BVM is the most popular patron in County Cork followed by St Brigid and St John whilst in Kerry St Brendan and Finán are particularly revered.

One of my favourites has to be St Gobnait, I spent some time following in her footsteps from Inis Oirr to Ballyvourney on her search for the nine white deer. The image below shows all women called Gobnait who attended the Féile Ghobnatan in Baile Mhuirne, 2023. This occasion was the unveiling of a sculpture envisaging how the 13C statue of St Gobnait, displayed on the feast day, may have looked when new – the original is in the centre.

Belief in cures remains strong and there is an impressive variety on offer at our holy wells: Kerry has at least 22 different cures ranging from morning sickness to dyspepsia, plague to stomach ache, mental ailments to sore bones. County Cork has over 34 different cures, again very varied from men’s problems to women’s problems, St Vitus Dance (Parkinson’s) to arthritis, ague to earache rheumatism to fairy blast (stroke). In both counties, and I think this is countrywide, the most popular cure is for sore eyes – 72 wells in Cork and 23 in Kerry offering this cure. This is followed by warts in Cork (29) and rheumatism, headaches and sores in Kerry with four wells each.

Many wells still have a pattern day – a day usually celebrating the birth or death day of the patron saint. Once they used to be big events, attracting hundreds if not thousands of pilgrims, possibly lasting for several days and a mixture of devotion and decadence! One of the most traditional must be the one centred around Lady’s Well in Ballyheigue, North Kerry where there is still a three day pattern based around the 8th September, a combination of devotion, dancing and pigs trotters! No faction fighting though.

Many wells are complimented by a sacred tree or bile, which often has its own healing qualities. Often they are hawthorns, richly bedecked in rags and other offerings as at Inghne Bhuidhe’s holy well in Dromtarrife, North Cork. The rags can be a direct petition for a cure – the rag being rubbed on an afflicted part of the body in the hope that the affliction would be transferred to the rag which in turn was transferred to the tree, as the rag disintegrated so the affliction weakened.

Scattered around the country are stones bearing saintly footprints, headprints, kneeprints and even a pair of spectacles! St Finbarr, traipsing across the mountains on his way home to Gougane Barra, accidently left his spectacles on a rock near a holy well in Glenflesk, Kerry. A convoy of saints passed the specs by hand to St Finbarr in Gougane. So saintly were the specs that they left an imprint on the rock, still there today.

My very favourite set of prints can be found across the border in Tipperary where St Patrick’s rather chunky kneeprints are in the middle of the road near Cahir, protected by a lozenge shaped outline of stones. Apparently the whole thing was once painted green.

Many wells in Cork and in Kerry have blessed fish, usually trout or eel and considered incredibly good luck to see the. At Mitchelstown the eel is believed to be an embodiment of St Fanahan himself, whilst the eel resident in Tubrid Wells seems to be seen frequently and has huge respect. I was thrilled to finally see it in October 2023.

It has become obvious to me that holy wells are unique and should be valued and cherished as such, for three main reasons:

Continuity: it is now acceptable to acknowledge that many wells are pre-Christian – that’s mind blowing for it means that some may have been in use for at least 2000 years old if not more. The holy well in the City of Shrone, Cathair Croabh Dearg, east Kerry is part of a truly ancient complex nestling under the twin Paps of Anu. The site comprises a stone cashel, a cairn, some large stones that may once have contained Ogham lettering, a penitential station, a collection of cross- inscribed stones described as a megalithic altar, a modern statue of our Lady of the Wayside, and the ridiculously picturesque remains the deerhough’s (caretaker) cottage. The well is no longer in its original position and is now found just outside the cashel. There is still a strong belief in its cures, especially on May 1, the start of Bealtaine.

Connection – Secondly, I think we might still be doing the same things we have always done at holy wells – rounding them, following the sun; saying prayers, leaving offerings and gifts, and sipping the water or putting it on our bodies. This is an astonishing example of continuity throughout the centuries.

Continued relevance: Wells have quietly existed throughout the millennia, in spite of ups and downs, and seem to be constantly evolving and offering us what we need, if we are prepared to accept it. I like the concept of wells as therapeutic landscapes, peaceful, serene places where mind and body can be healed as described here by Ronan Foley:

Holy wells … can be described as therapeutic landscapes that have achieved lasting reputations for providing physical, mental and spiritual healing.(Ronan Foley, Performing Health in Place: The holy well as therapeutic assemblage)

This is powerful, compelling and, to me, very sensible. Many wells are set in remote and beautiful areas, they can be challenging to get to, the walk itself an integral part of the pilgrimage giving you time to clear your mind and focus on why you are going. The site itself may be incredibly scenic- often in a circular enclosure like a little oasis. There may even  be a gate you have to enter, all lending to the feeling of going into a different world. Once inside it might be exceptionally peaceful, just  you and a robin. Here you can perform any ritual that seems appropriate – the traditional round, a walking meditation in itself.  Leaving a small gift at the well and or saying a prayer or request adds to the personal connection. Finally taking some water provides a sort of anointing. All rituals and acts generating  healing and well being. 

In such turbulent and uncertain times the peace and solace offered by holy wells seems more pertinent than ever. A huge thank you to the people who do so much to keep their spirit alive. It’s probably time for me to now re-visit them all!

And Roaringwater Journal is also celebrating holy wells on this St Brigid’s Day, dear Robert much missed but we have enjoyed some great adventures.

Lá Fheíle Bride shona daoibh.