In the middle of a small road leading to the Swiss Cottage in Cahir, County Tipperary , is a lozenge shape, inlaid with stones – but look carefully and two large scoops can be seen in the centre. These are described as imprints left by St Patrick’s knees when he knelt down to pray whilst […]
St Manchán
In the Hoofprints of St Manchán: a trip to County Offaly
We’re just back from a short but action-packed few days in County Westmeath which turned out to be full of wonders and astonishment. Perhaps the most amazing was to be found enroute to the early monastic site of Lemanaghan, actually in County Offaly. St Manchán’s Shrine, Boher The first stop was at the little church […]
The Good, the Mad and the Strange: a round up of 2019
A quick round up of some of the more intriguing wells visited in 2019. It’s been a busy year for I officially completed my research on the holy wells in County Cork: 310 wells visited and recorded, and then ventured forth into County Kerry. A long visit to New Zealand followed by a horrible bout […]
Tobar Manacháin agus an Madra
I’m back in the Gaeltacht having finished an intense but rewarding week on an Irish language immersion course in Baile an Fheirtéaraigh, Corca Dhuibhne; Ballyferriter, Dingle Peninsula. (There’ll be a lot of Irish in this blog, hopefully mainly spelled correctly, but it seems only right to give names in Irish first). The course was very […]