A most enjoyable morning in the company of Patsy O Callagan and John Lane, two very knowledgeable and passionate local historians. They had invited me to explore two obscure wells in their parish of Iniscarra – how could I refuse. Fuelled with good coffee at the Angler’s Rest we headed off down small country lanes, […]
North Cork
A Peregrination Part 3: The home run
Having toured North Cork in part 2 of her peregrination, visited three possible sisters and a brother, St Gobnait remains in County Cork for the last leg of her journey; but before embarking on the home straight makes an inexplicable journey down to West Cork – sure, why wouldn’t you! Kilgobbin, Ballinadee St Gobnait then […]
The Good, the Mad and the Strange: a round up of 2019
A quick round up of some of the more intriguing wells visited in 2019. It’s been a busy year for I officially completed my research on the holy wells in County Cork: 310 wells visited and recorded, and then ventured forth into County Kerry. A long visit to New Zealand followed by a horrible bout […]
Signage, paths & no cows: three wells in North Kerry
This was rather an unexpected sight to see in a remote area of North Kerry: three larger than life statues of St Bridget, Our Lady and Christ crucified lined up along the side of a road. They were of course connected with a holy well. Knoppoge Holy Well, St Brigid’s Well, Tobar Eilís, Tobereleesh, Tobar […]
Gadding around Glanmire
If you remember I had collapsed in my very comfortable airbnb only to be told that the local history expert was on his way to give me a few tips. John was delightful, someone who had lived in the Glanmire area for most of his life and who was a treasure trove of local information […]
Tobairín Dónail, Rathcormack Mountain
This well was discovered at the end of a long and hard day’s exploration – see last week’s blog. It’s one of those wells that I have looked at on the map and sighed for it looked very remote and difficult to get too- also the name of the townland Rathcormack Mountain was a bit off putting. […]