I was recently invited to Glanworth in North Cork to give a talk on holy wells as part of National Heritage Week, and to acknowledge the recent renovation of St Dominic’s Holy Well by the local community groups. I have visited a few times before, each time alarmed by the neglected and sorry state of […]
National Monuments Service
St Finbarr Revisited & some thoughts on conservation
I am finally back in Ireland having spent six months in New Zealand, four months longer than intended due to Covid-19! The virus continues to restrict movements so I decided to revisit two holy wells close to home and see how they were faring. Last time I visited was in 2016 and both wells, both […]
On Wells 1: a few statistics
In February 2016 I set out to visit all the holy wells in County Cork and record what I found. Little did I realise what an interesting, eye opening and sociable journey it would be! The Archaeological Inventory for County Cork (2014) lists around 356 holy wells. Of this number around 50 are described as […]


