Fuelled with a large and delicious breakfast at the Café Townhouse in Doneraile a clutch of wells were on the agenda today resulting in two no shows, an unexpected possible and a dilapidated well in a curious position. St Coneela’s Well, Doneraile St Coneela’s Well, in the townland of Horseclose and on the edge of […]
Eyes
Well Shifting around Donoughmore
Still travelling to Doneraile, three wells around Donoughmore lured us off the N20. All three were dedicated to St Lachteen, he of the beautiful arm reliquary and multiple wells around Kilnamartrya. He is also considered to be patron saint of Donoughmore and many churches and schools are still named after him, as are the three […]
St Declan’s Well, Ardmore
I’m just back from an excellent two day conference on Holy Wells, An Tobar, in Waterford. It’s always good to meet like minded fellow enthusiasts and it was a very cosmopolitan and interesting gathering. Congratulations to the two organisers, Celeste Ray and Shane Lordan, for such a well organised and comprehensive conference. After all the […]
St John’s Wells, Castletownbere
I knew this would be a bit of a challenge and had put off exploring until I had plenty of time – and energy. Just by looking at the OS map I could see these two wells, dedicated to St John, were situated right on top of a pretty steep mountain – the Maulin. From […]
Island Wells 3: Bere Island: An tOileán Mór
It’s always a pleasure to visit one of the islands off the coast of Cork, and each of the seven inhabited islands have a very distinct personality of their own. Today I was off to Bere island, An tOileán Mor (the big island); a short ferry trip from Castletownbere. Castletownbere was in a bit of […]
Beara Wells 2 & a trip into Kerry
Like a terrier with a stick, I kept on thinking about St Mochuda’s Well as yet unfound, and the mystery well at the roadside. A few weeks ago we had a second trip to the Beara Peninsula and had time to investigate further. A gorgeous cold day, snow on the mountains, the wind whipping through […]