• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Holy Wells of Cork & Kerry

not all who wander are lost

  • Home
  • Blog
  • On Wells
    • A Few Statistics
    • The Water & the Cure
    • Saints & Sinners
    • Pilgrimage, Partying & Paying the Rounds
    • Sacred Trees
    • Blessed Fish
    • Feast Days (dates)
  • Gazetteer
    • Cork City
    • East Cork
    • North Cork
    • West Cork
    • Dingle Peninsula
    • Iveragh Peninsula & Valentia Island
    • North Kerry
    • South Kerry
    • Elsewhere
  • Contact me
  • Privacy Policy

Kerry

Piety, Pleasure & Miraculous Tussocks: Killmackillogue

6th January 2020 10 Comments

This sounded an intriguing place – a holy well that in fact might be a lake but which may no longer be there, remembered for its miraculous floating tussocks! We set out to investigate, heading to a remote coastal tip of the Beara Peninsula – Bunaw/Kilmackilloge, just off the R574 from Kenmare to Lauragh. The […]

Filed Under: South Kerry Tagged With: Archaeological Inventory Beara Peninsula Bunaw Dictionary of Irish Saints Francis Joseph Bigger Franconia Frank Miller Germany Healy Pass hermitage Irish Times Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland Kenmare Kerry Kiliani-Volkfest Kilmackilloge Lough Mackeenlaun Mass Rock Michael D Higgins Mullagh pattern pilgrimage pilgrims relic reliquary Rev D O Donaghue Rosita Boland rounds Schools' Folklore Project St Kilian Tuosist tussocks Wurzburg

Cream Pies & Crubeens: Pattern Day in Ballyheigue

15th September 2019 11 Comments

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 […]

Filed Under: North Kerry Tagged With: Banna Strand Bishop of Kerry Blessed Virgin Mary cream pies crubeens Duchás Photographic Collection Eyes grotto Irish Times Kerry Mary Brenneman Mass North Kerry offerings pattern day quartz rounds Schools' Folklore Project Stations of the Cross statue trout Walter Brenneman

A Mountain Well for Lughnasa

5th August 2019 13 Comments

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, […]

Filed Under: Dingle Peninsula Tagged With: Backache Bishop Moriarty Blasket Islands bull Caoimhín ÓDanachair Cloghane Cnoc Bréanainn Corca Dhuibhne Cosán na Naomh Croagh Patrick Crom Dubh Domhnach Crom Dubh Faha Grotto Hikelines Isle of the Blessed Kerry Lunasa Máire MacNeill Mount Brandon Navigatio Sancti Brendani Abbatis Paternoster Lakes pilgrimage Reek Sunday rounds Skelligs Sliabh nDaidche St Brendan Toothache

Thinking Out Gobnait

23rd June 2019 14 Comments

A visit to Corca Dhuibhne, the Dingle Peninsula, and the Gaeltacht, with several interesting wells on the agenda (an oxymoron surely). First stop, Dún Chaoin, Dunquin, and Ionad agus Oileán an Bhlascaoid Mhór, the Blasket Centre, Designed over 25 years ago and nestling respectfully into the landscape, this is an interesting building containing a fascinating display […]

Filed Under: Dingle Peninsula Tagged With: Aran Islands Ballyvourney bees Blasket Centre Blasket Islands Bones cairn Caoimhín ÓDanachair Cliodna Cussen clochán Dunquin Gaeltacht Harry Clarke Honan Chapel Imbolc Inis Oirr Kerry Robert Mitchum rounds Ryan's Daughter Sean Keating Seán Mac tSithigh. St Gobnait stone cross The Holy Wells of Corkaguiney Toothache University College Cork

Tobar Mhíchíl, St Michael’s Well, Lixnaw

2nd May 2019 14 Comments

I suppose I must have visited nearly 400 holy wells over the last few years and some are still capable of surprise, none more so than this one in Lixnaw, North Kerry, dedicated to St Michael the Archangel: Tobar Mhíchíl. The Site The well is clearly signed off the R557 just before reaching the village […]

Filed Under: North Kerry Tagged With: Charles Dickens David Lynch diviner Eyes fish Kerry Lixnaw maggie sticks Muintir na Tire offerings pattern pilgrimage rag tree Rheumatism rosaries rounds Satan Schools' Folklore Project shrine smock frock St Michael statue The Kerryman thimble men thimblerig William Frith RA

Two wells on Valentia Island

24th February 2019 10 Comments

A couple of days staying on Valentia Island. The weather roared and howled around us with a complex mixture of snow and sleet, gales and glorious sunshine. Our comfy base was the Royal Hotel Valentia – a roaring fire and excellent food welcoming us after each hard day’s well hunt. Valentia is a remarkable place […]

Filed Under: Iveragh Peninsula Tagged With: Blasket Islands Cahersiveen Christy Moore cilleen cross slab currach Dictionary of Irish Saints Failte Ireland Photographic Collection Fenit George Walsh grotto Harry Clarke Honan Chapel Imleach Bog Isle of the Blessed Judas Iscariot Kerry Knight of Kerry Knightstown leacht Marian year Michael Healey Mount Brandon Navigatio Sancti Brendani Abbatis pelican penitential station Portmagee Rheumatism rounds Royal Valentia Hotel Schools' Folklore Project Shaun Davey Skellig Michael slate quarry St Brendan St Ita stained glass The Kerryman Tim Severin Valentia Island

  • Page 1
  • Page 2
  • Page 3
  • Go to Next Page »

Primary Sidebar

Follow my blog by e-mail

Enter your email address to be told when I publish a new post. You can un-subscribe at any time.

Join 351 other subscribers.

Recent posts

Travelling hopefully around Tralee

A mysterious well at the end of the world – St Erc, Kerry Head

A fairy Fort, a foxy woman & an enigmatic stone: Meenvane, Schull

Ringing in the old & the new: a round up of explorations in 2024

Monthly Archive

Index of tags

tree fairy a Ribbonson

An alphabetical list of all the tags used on this site … → about Index of Tags

© 2025 Amanda Clarke

 

Loading Comments...