This year, 2024, marks the 1500th anniversary of the death of St Brigid, one of the three patron saints of Ireland, along with St Patrick and St Colmcille. Brigid is believed to have to have been born around 450AD in Faughart, County Louth but she is mainly associated with Kildare where she founded a religious […]
Castlemagner;
On Wells 2: the Water & the Cure
The most significant thing about a holy well is of course the water. Not all wells are wells though, they can be springs, lakes, scoops in rock, ponds, hollows in trees or part of a stream. And not all wells now contain water – 37 holy wells visited were dry. Hopefully a few of those […]
Our Lady’s Well, near Cloyne
A few days in east Cork on a holy well expedition proved fascinating and rewarding. The very first well visited was probably one of my all time favourites and really the epitome of all that’s special about Irish holy wells. Lady’s Well, Tobar Mhuire, Titeskin Near the ruins of the old church of Titeskin (or […]
A tale of two Lickeys*
What makes a well holy is a question I’ve often been asked and one I pondered on today as I investigated two very different but both interesting wells. Letterlickey Well First stop Letterlickey (leitir lice, hillside of the flagstones) where I had been invited to look at a well on private land. The owners had […]
St Brigid’s Well, Castlemagner
This has to be one of my favourite wells visited so far. We had had an energetic day searching out holy wells in North Cork and this was the last on the agenda. It is not easy to find and seems to be on the fold of several different OS maps but eventually, after much […]