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 […]
Schools' Folklore Project
A day out in Glenville with CHAS
I’ve been a member of the Cork Historical & Archaeological Society (CHAS) for some time now but have never ventured out on one of their many interesting expeditions. When I saw they were going on an outing to Glenville in North Cork I was intrigued, especially as one of the places on the itinerary was […]
Heading East: Wandering through Waterford, Wexford and Wicklow
I was recently invited to participate in the the Wellsprings of Éiríu event in County Wexford, organised by Áine Fortune of Embodied Soul. It was a long drive but it is always nice to meet up with like minded people. There were six speakers but what was especially welcome was that Áine left plenty of […]
Travelling hopefully around Tralee
After the enchantment surrounding the adventure to St Erc’s well in the last blog, it is only fair to reveal that not all holy well explorations are so exciting and rewarding. There are about 10 wells around Tralee that I have been intending to visit for years but it’s been hard to muster enthusiasm. Consulting […]
A fairy Fort, a foxy woman & an enigmatic stone: Meenvane, Schull
Sometimes things come together in unexpected ways and at unexpected moments! Visiting my hairdresser recently, the talk of course got round to holy wells! She mentioned that she had been discussing local wells with another client and the well at Meenvane had come up. I confessed that I thought I had mis-identified this one and […]
Found, Forgotten, Revisited: a November round up
A blog highlighting some recently visited wells around County Cork and County Kerry, including some old friends and some new discoveries. It is now reasonable to assume that many holy wells date from before the Christian era and can therefore be hundreds of years old. The first well described may be unusual in that it […]