Whilst trawling through photos, I came across three wells which had somehow escaped being recorded. All are in South Kerry not far from Killarney. Tobar Críosta, Toberchreest, Well of Christ, St Brigid’s Well, Dunloe Tobar Críosta is in the townland of Coolmagort, wild and scenic country to the west of Killarney near the Gap of […]
Duchás Photographic Collection
In Plain Sight: Two Wells in An Daingean
Not all holy wells are in remote and scenic spots, some are hidden in plain sight in towns and can take as much finding as their rural cousins. St John’s Well, Tobar Eoin, Dingle town I had looked for this well many times before. I knew the well itself was no longer visible and that […]
Off the beaten track in Corca Dhuibhne
Jim Dempsey of the excellent Megalithic Ireland kindly alerted me to a well on the Dingle Peninsula which he had recently cleared a path to, and he advised that I visit soon before the undergrowth took over once again. That sounded like a good excuse to nip across to Kerry for a few days. Well […]
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 […]
Cream Pies & Crubeens: Pattern Day in Ballyheigue
The most important day in a holy well’s spiritual and social calendar was the pattern day – the day when the patron of the well was celebrated. Up until the early 1800s patterns days were common at most wells and were frequently boisterous affairs attended by literally hundreds of people. (See Pilgrimage, Partying & Paying […]
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 […]