Four very different wells around Timoleague

Today we headed out east on the trail of wells in the Timoleague area. Our first stop was a beautifully kept and still revered Lady’s Well, Tobar Mhuire, just outside the town.

Lady’s Well,Tobar Mhuire, Timoleague

This little well can be found right next to the GAA pitch on the road into Timoleague. It is a beautifully maintained site, still much visited and revered.

The site is enclosed by railings painted blue and white and is approached through a decorative metal gate. A tall elm tree lies behind and a stream runs down the side of it.

The well is dedicated to Our Lady who is said to have appeared here. Inside the railings, her benign statue gazes down from a whitewashed niche, blessed by the Parish priest on the 8th September, 1928.

The dove above her head is highly symbolic and refers to the creation of the well:

Its origin is traced to the time of the monks in Timoleague Abbey. One day a monk was returning from the leper hospital at Spittle and as there were no roads that time he had to go across the fields. When he came to the place where the well is now he fell asleep and while he was asleep a dove dropped a letter on his forehead. When he awoke he put his hand to his forehead and he felt the letter which bore a message telling him that a well would spring up where he slept. Ever since that day the townland has been called “Litir Colm”.

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Colm means dove and litir or letter usually refers to a boggy spot, so a bit of poetic licence has been allowed here.

The well is large and circular, accessed by a fairly steep step. The water is fresh and clear and can be seen percolating.

This entry in the School’s Folklore Collection gives some interesting extra information:

Lady’s well lies about half mile west of Timoleague off the Clonakilty road, at the front of Lettercolm Hill. It is a chalybeate spring, having a yield of about 7,000 gallons per day. The well is about 15 feet in circumference, surrounded by a rough stone wall, outside which at the northern side are two concentric half circles divided by another rough wall and furze hedge with a passage between the inner circle and the well, and an outside one back of the hedge.

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The water was considered good for general cures and Mrs Fleming had a very positive experience:

A few people were cured at this well. Mrs Fleming from Barryshall … had a sore leg. One Easter Sunday morning she went to the well very early to see the sun dancing, and she rubbed the water to her leg. All at once she felt her leg getting better, and about a week afterwards she was completely cured. She has great faith in the well. People drink the water and some people take it home with them, and when they visit the well they usually let a medal or something on the wall.

Ibid

The well is also said to contain a blessed eel, good luck to those who see it.

Popular days for visiting the well were all unsurprisingly feast days connected with the BVM: 15th March, all of May, 15th August, 8th September and 8th September. Rounds to be paid by pilgrims were as follows:

When they visit the well they do the rounds which are made by getting seven small stones from a stream which runs near the well; they walk seven times round a hedge which surrounds the well and each time they throw a stone into the stream and they say the Pater, Ave and Gloria seven times.There is also a cement wall around the well, and the rounds are also made around it.

Ibid

This entry from the Schools’ Folklore Collection gives added details:

Pilgrims to this well have been very numerous, and embrace persons in every position of life, including non-Catholics. The ritual consists in “paying rounds”. Nine pebbles are taken in the left hand, nine rounds are made of the outside circle, during each of which a Pater and Ave are recited, at the end of which a pebble is dropped into the outer stream. Then seven pebbles are similarly used for seven rounds of the inner circle; pilgrimages are most numerous on the feasts of the Blessed Virgin, to whom the well is dedicated, but are not confined to those feast days alone.

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Mass is still said here on the 15th August and 8th December.

A few photos from a revisit to Lady’s Well, shortly after the 15th August 2022 where I chatted to Mary, Mary and Kathleen, all three reciting the Rosary and then taking the water. They were glowing about the qualities of the water and had been coming to the well for as long as they could remember. They knew of several cures and two of them had seen the eel.

A plaque in the labyrinth in front of the Catholic church in Timoleague includes a reference to the well and its resident eel(s).

Mass was held here for the first time in a good few years on the feast day 15th August 2023. It was a warm sunny day and the pattern was very well attended. The well itself was beautifully decorated and many people I spoke to mentioned the power of the cure, especially when seeing the blessed eel, still very much in evidence apparently.

Wart Well, Timoleague Abbey

The next well was located inside the sacristy of Timoleague Abbey. The helpful plaque assures us of its use and this extract from the Schools’ Folklore Collection confirms its qualities:

There is a holy well inside the walls of Timoleague Abbey which is said to have cured people who were afflicted with warts. The condition for to get cured is simply bathe the infected hand in the water of the well. The well is carved out in stone and holds about a pint of water. The curious thing about it is that it is full of water when the tide is full and it is nearly empty when the tide is gone out although it is much higher than the sea. I cannot say if all this information is perfectly true and I did not see the well but I think the source from which I obtained the information can be relied upon. 

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The well is not actually a true well but a bullaun stone and, as has been noted at Lissagriffin, the water that collects in these stones is often appreciated for its therapeutic qualities, especially where warts are concerned. Although the water here doesn’t look terribly enticing, I have spoken to several people who tell me that their warts were cured at this well.

No one is entirely certain what bullauns were for or how old they are but what is certain is that they are portable stones with a man-made depression in the centre and often crop up near religious sites – a large one was placed in the centre of St Abán’s grave for example, and another on the Mass Rock near Lady’s well near Bantry. Bullauns have many have superstitions associated with them ie their healing properties but there is also a theory that they were originally used for grinding and only later were considered to be holy objects.

Eye Well, Tobar na Súl

The next well was a complete contrast, located a few miles outside Timoleague. We found Burren Bridge, put in the GPS number and searched around the undergrowth. It was a beautiful spot, the bridge ancient, the water of the little river sparkling and the surrounding vegetation lush and green with the first celandines peeping through. I thought I found the signs of a small wellhouse, broken by a fallen tree – a drinking cup was the clue, but the GPS said otherwise. We searched on the other side of the road and were about to give up when a damp area was spotted. We started scrabbling around in the ferns and lo and behold a small stone structure appeared – the well!

The water, once cleared of leaves, was surprisingly fresh, the horseshoe shaped wellhouse neatly stacked with flat stones collecting the water, which then seeped off towards the river. A delightful little well once renowned for its healing qualities for eye ailments. We left it a little tidier than we found it.

Trinity Well, Tober na Trinoda

This well is a short distance from Tober na Súl but was far easier to find – it even had signpost!

Tober na Trinoda, or Trinity Well, is a short distance from the very beautiful Blessed Trinity Church at Rathclaren.  A narrow walled boreen leads down to the well.

Today the site was completely waterlogged, the area around the well at least three or four inches in water giving the stone built clochán, (beehive shaped structure) a moated air.

The entrance doorway is above ground level, so you step up before you step down again into the chamber. The well is a rectangular-shaped basin in the floor but today the whole thing was submerged under water. The water was copious but earthy. There is said to be a resident eel. Three niches have been built into the circular wall, no doubt representing the Blessed Trinity, but only one still contains a statue, that of Jesus.

A large pattern was once held here on Trinity Sunday but it became so uproarious it was cursed by the parish priest and has never truly recovered:

A well near Rathclarin, Ráth Cláirín, Kilbrittain was once walled and roofed round with flagstones. A door led into the well and seats were built inside. Round the well inside also was a path. Outside the well was another path enclosed too by a stone wall. On Trinity Sunday people came from far and near to pay “Rounds” at this well. During the “rounds” they walked round the outer path.Porter, whiskey etc. were sold in the vicinity that day and fights and brawls were common. A priest is said to have cursed the well and it has been abandoned since. Sometimes an eel which must not be touched appears in the water and then someone is cured.

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It sounds as though the well was neglected and unloved in the 1930s when the above entry was written. Today is revered and the Rosary is said here every Trinity Sunday, the week after Pentecost Sunday, usually in the middle of June.

Revisiting the well in 2021 we were astonished to see a large nest had been made insde the well, two rather bewildered rooklets gazing back at us!

We also tried to find to find St Brittain’s Well in nearby Kilbrittain. A very pretty village full of colour and friendly people. We found the whale, we admired the buildings and although we inquired and phonecalls were made, no one had any information about St Brittain’s well.

Edit: Kilbrittain Well, since found.

The location of these wells can be found in the Gazetteer.