This is the last post about my recent sojourn to County Clare with Finola of Roaringwater Journal. Although we had been firmly on the trail of St Senan I was thrilled to find that Lady’s Well Drumellihy was close to Kilkee. I had long admired the elaborate and distinctive wellhouse with its smart blue and white paintwork and couldn’t wait to visit. We visited on the day when the weather was too terrible to take the ferry to Scattery Island, and it wasn’t ideal for visiting wells either but hey!
Lady’s Well, Tobar Mhuire, Drumellihy
Finola wisely decided to stay in the car on this occasion and let me loose into the rain and wind. It’s a large site covering several acres, the well perched up on the sloping hillside. Below is a covered shelter plus altar and nearby by are some holy loos. The rain was horizontal, the wind howling but the well looked enticing. I ventured forth, the ground soggy and ankle wrenching.
First I sought temporary sheltered in the covered area containing an altar, benches and Stations of the Cross.
The altar contains the the replica of a mass rock once used on this site during Penal times.
Neary by are some handy holy conveniences.
No putting it off now and a battle ensued against the wind to approach the well.
The whole area is enclosed in a rectangular wall, whitewashed with architectural details picked out in BVM blue, erected sometime around 1900.
Inside is an elaborate grotto surmounted by a cross, containing a statue of Our Lady, details again picked out in blue. The site doesn’t seem to have changed much since this information was collected by Margaret Joseph Martyn from Michael Martyn on 12 June 1934, from the Main Manuscript of the National Folklore Collection (MM):
The well itself is on the side of a small hill … this is the highest and largest hill in the townland. There is a whitethorn hedge around the field in which the well is. Outside the well there is a protecting wall about 2ft high, with a small iron gate to enter and over there is a cement niche with a fine statue of Our Lady (height about 4ft). This statue has a glass protection in front fitted so as to open for the festival. The well is lined by cement and kept spotlessly clean. All walls for protection were erected by Michael Tubridy, native of Drumellihy, in whose land the well is. These walls have not been erected long, about 30years. (MM 0132:0466)
The little gate remains, enter through it and the well lies flush with the ground, also protected by a glass panel. This can be moved aside to get access to the water.
The water is enclosed in a rather brutalist metal basin, but is cold, clear and refreshing, and contains various cures:
It is frequented for cures of all manners – stomach trouble etc lameness, headaches, sore eyes, rheumatics etc. (ibid)
The well is also believed to contain a trout, visible only by someone about to recieve the cure:
A trout is supposed to inhabit the well but only visible to a person whose request has been granted or who has ‘got the benefit of the round’, so to speak. The trout is supposed to be the saint of the well who assumed that form for the person who is to be cured. (Ibid)
Rather wonderfully you can access the water without having to kneel down in an ungainly and perilous position, for there is a handy button to press and then water shoots out of a pipe.
Walking around the shrine there is an attractive folkart crucifixion panel erected in 1844 by John Quinn. It reads
This Humble Monument
has been raised in honour
of the B VIRGIN MARY
By John Quinn
of Caherfeenick
Pious Visiter Pray for Him
AD1844
The feast day is 15th August and still attracts many pilgrims. The round is paid as follows:
There are three “special rounds” outside the well and one inside – all starting, opposite niche of Our Lady – beginning on outer round at first and going towards east. At the well form your intention. Then bless yourself, say Apostles’ Creed, Our Father and three Hail Mary’s. Proceed to 1st round; genuflect opposite niche, and proceed with round saying a decade of the beads. Repeat this five times. Proceed to 2nd. round and say same prayers. Again say same prayers while doing 3rd. round, which finishes rounds outside the well. Inside wall say one Our Father, one hail Mary and Glory, once each time for five rounds. Kneel at well and again meditate on intention … The water is then drunk and applied three times to affected parts.
There is some more interesting information from Margaret Martyn:
The 15th August is the principal day for doing rounds, as well as the octave before and after. The 14th August all invalids stay overnight at the well. Three or four years ago a child was cured on the 14th by staying at the well while his mother did the round for him, he being afflicted with a bad leg and having to use a crutch (This is still at the back of the well, with two other, left by those who got cured in this manner about 15 years ago.) People visit the well on the 25th March, during May and October.
No sign of the crutches today but there were some interesting sights
Apaprently the well is not in its original position but was once 400yds to the north and it took umbrage when a young woman washed her clothes in it and moved south. This extract has the misdemeanour as washing feet in the sacred water.
There is a blessed well in Dromelihy now, know as Our Lady’s Well, Long ago this well was at the foot of Dromelihy Hill. A woman named Kate Beogh lived in a little house beside it. One night she went out to the well for water and put it over the fire to boil, but if it was over the fire since it wouldn’t boil. She took it up then when it wouldn’t boil and washed her feet in it. The graveyard was at this time in Tubridy’s field. The following morning the blessed well had removed up to where the graveyard was, and the graveyard down to where the blessed well was. (SFC:060: 0631)
A remarkable place, still much loved and cared for. I need to come back on a better day and linger awhile. Bishop Fintan visited on a much nicer day than I.
No time to dry out for we hadn’t travelled very far when we spotted another little well!
Our Lady’s Well, Tobermurray, Tobar Muire, Kilmacduane
John Ó Donovan noted in 1839:
There is another Holy Well in the Townland of Kil-Mac-A-Dubhain dedicated to the Virgin Mary, at which Stations still continue to be performed. (John O Donovan, Ordnance Survey Letters, 1839)
And there it was, spotted serendipitously whilst looking for a different well.
Our Lady’s Well lies in a field just outside the ancient graveyard and medieval church site of Kilmacduane, currently looking a bit adrift in a sea of mud and drainage work. A paved track, now mostly grassed over, leads to the well and the first thing that strikes is how well made and maintained it is. This photo from 2010 shows it wasn’t always the case.
The circular wall remains more or less the same but the whitewash has gone, the stone blocks are now revealed with new ornamentations on the top. A small metal gate allows entrance into the interior, which is flagged.
A tiered stone shrine stands over the well, surmounted by a cross. A glass covered niche contains a statue of the BVM and below that is a shelf for offerings and cups, and below that the well itself.
The well is subterranean, approached down some sturdy steps, today quite slippery. It’s all beautifully and carefully made, the stonework impressive. A foundation plaque gives a date of 5 March 1978 but further renovations must have been carried out more recently.
The water was cold and abundant and according to John O Donovan (OS Letters, 1839) holds a cure for sore eyes. The feast day is the 15th August.
Walking around the well, there doesn’t seem to be any sign of the crucifixion panel which was also photographed in 2010 By Clare County Council.
A couple of slightly wonky chairs are available for contemplation, preferably on a sunnier day.
I think this little well probably gets a bit overshadowed by its bigger sister just down the road at Drumellihy but, inspite of the lashing rain, it had a peaceful and authentic air.
The location of these holy well can be found in the Gazetteer.
I am using this blog to share details of a conference coming up the 8th November in Killaloe, County Clare. It promises to be a wide ranging and stimulating day, and I’m privileged to be one of the speakers. Should you be anywhere near, do come along.
Further information can be had here: MiseUisce
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