Back to Corca Dhuibhne, the Dingle Peninsula, and a stop off at Annascaul to find Tobar na Croise, Well of the Cross. Annascaul is a colourful and attractive little village, best know perhaps as being the home of Tom Crean of South Pole exploration fame. On his retirement from the Navy he and his wife […]
Caoimhín ÓDanachair
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 […]
St Batt’s Well & an Abundance of Cattle
It is the season for frisky and curious cattle and they were in abundance near the first two wells encountered in today’s exploration in North Kerry. St Lúireach’s Well, Tobar Luráigh, Toberlury Tobar Luráigh looked remote and difficult to find on the map, and it was. The footpath shown on the early OS maps had […]
An Epic Pilgrimage for Michaelmas
There is a very picturesque area near Baile an Sceilg, Ballinskelligs, on the Iveragh Peninsula in Kerry known as the Glen. It stretches from Duchalla Head to Puffin Island, encompassing the enigmatic Skellig Rocks nine miles off the coast. The most famous rock, Sceilg Mhíchíl, Skellig Michael, was an early Christian settlement, where the monks […]
Tobar Fláinn: on the edge of the World
Whilst up Mount Brandon and chatting with Mícheal he asked me if I had been to St Flainn’s Well. I confessed I had not, mainly because the Archaeological Inventory is rather dismissive: Toberyline/Tobar Flainn: Located at the base of the sea cliffs immediately S of Brandon point. It is a ‘clear spring in a rock […]
A Mountain Well for Lughnasa
Some wells are more challenging than others. Tobar Bréanainn, St Brendan’s Well, on the summit of Cnoc Bréanainn, Mount Brandon, has to be one of the most dramatically positioned holy wells and one of the most fiendishly difficult I’ve ever attempted to get to. But it had to be done, and on the correct day, […]