I recently joined forces with Charlotte Cargin who took me on a whirlwind tour of some of the wells in Kinsale, the town originally called Fan na dTubraid: the Slope of the Springs/Wells. I had noticed that Charlotte was busy uncovering wells in the town and surrounding areas and wanted to find out a bit […]
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Wonderful Wells & Wild Weather: squelching around the Iveragh
I’m just back from an excellent long weekend at the inaugural Skellig Coast Archaeology Festival. The weather was atrocious and many events were outside but we were a hardy lot and sallied forth anyway – and there were wells! St Crohane’s Well, Tobar Chrócháin One of the highlights of the programme for me was a […]
Patrick’s Well: trees, trout & a strange mound
In search for a well for St Patrick’s Day where better to start than a townland encouragingly called Patrickswell. This one is in County Limerick which has nineteen wells dedicated to the patron saint – quite a contrast to County Cork which has only two and I have yet to come across any dedicated to […]
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 […]
Tobar an Bhile & a lot of Serendipity
Many years ago, and I’m talking about the late 1990s, we came for a family holiday in Kerry, staying in a cottage on the old butter road high on the slopes above Coad Mountain not far from Caherdaniel. Whilst in the local shop, I saw a notice about a pattern day at a holy well […]
On Wells 5: Their Sacred Trees
One of the most encouraging sights to see is a lone tree in a field, one that has been carefully left to its own devices, for often under that tree is a holy well. Holy wells and sacred trees go together perfectly for, like wells, trees have long been subjects of devotion and mystery. Found […]