A trip across the border 2: Killarney wells

Part two of my Kerry excursion and a trip to Killarney meant various holy wells required visiting. The first was right in the centre of the town.

St Mary’s Well, Killarney

St Mary’s Well is in the town itself, conveniently near the central car park. It is an unexpected sight amidst the bustle of Killarney but has a bit of a forgotten air, emphasised by the stern black railings all around it.

The wellhouse is jaunty enough – substantial, circular and whitewashed with a conical top painted BVM blue. It was built in 1850, according to the National Inventory of Architectural Heritage, the roof being added later in the twentieth century. Steps lead down into the well itself, now barred and inaccessible.

A plaque on the nearby wall gives a little information. The well is said to date from 1302 and was part of a larger religious complex which included the original church that gave Killarney its name: Cill Airne – Church of the Sloes. This was on the site of what is now St Mary’s C of I Church which was built in 1870. The well was originally used for baptisms and was also believed to hold a cure for sore throats and sore eyes as this extract from the Schools’ Folklore Collection describes:

St Mary’s well is situated behind the new town hall. It was called after the Catholic Church near it which is now a Protestant Church. … It is there for five hundred years. It opens on the 15th August. It is said there is no bottom to it. If anyone had a sore throat if they would drink the water (they would) become better. When the well is opened the people go in and say the rounds. (012:0455)

It was a site of pilgrimage and the annual Feast Day was held on the 15th August, Feast of the Assumption. I believe the well is still opened on this day. The 25th March, Feast of the Annunciation, was also a popular day for visitation. Rounds were as follows:

…  On the 15th of August every year rounds are made. The prayers prescribed for these rounds are the five decades of the rosary. Five rounds are made and a decade of the rosary is said for each round. When the rounds are finished the people bathe their faces or their eyes with the water and drink some of it and take some home. (012:0455)

Although you can no longer access the well itself there is a tap nearby so that water can still be obtained.

The well was also said to contain a blessed trout. These are two rather strange stories associated with it:

There was once a man who was very wicked. He had a son who was very wicked too. One day the man went to the well. He said he would not pray. He saw a fish below. He put his hand down to catch the fish. He slipped and fell in and his son saw him and jumped in to save his father but he could not and fell in and was drowned too. A long time ago there was a trout in the well, Anyone who saw the trout was cured of their illness. A man said he would catch the trout. he brought a net and when the trout appeared he caught him. When he was pulling up the net his hand fell dead to his side. When he tried to stand up he could not, his legs and hand were paralysed. The trout changed into a stone and remained a stone forever. It can still be seen at the edge of the well.

Sadly I couldn’t identified the petrified trout.

A little way away in Killarney National Park likes another remarkable well.

Cuddy’s Well, Cloc Mo Cuda, Killarney

This well was actually visited the day before the one above when the sun was blazing. Searching for Cuddy’s Well, we came across a delightful thatched ice cream parlour. We had to stop and try one. Interestingly the man in charge also knew a lot about the well, directed us how to find it and told me a few stories. It’s always worth stopping for an ice cream!

The walk to the well is a delightful one, through fields and pasture full of deer.

A turn left leads into a small woodland, heady with the aroma of wild garlic and tinged with blue from the bluebells still in abundance. The well is easily identified as there is a white cross painted onto the tree above it.

The jumble of stones at the foot of the tree doesn’t at first look that exciting but look again and a slab containing two bullauns is easily definable, a scattering of larger stones surrounding it. The name Cloc Mo Cuda means Stone of Mocuda. I wondered if the two large flat stones nearby had originally been used as covers, as is sometimes the case with bullauns.

There is a wonderful story in the Schools’ Folklore Collection describing how this well originated:

Long, long ago there was a monk living in the monastery of Innisfallen. He used to go for a walk every day. One day when he was teaching in the school he told the pupils that he would be back to say the Angelus with them. He went away and was not gone far when he was attracted by the singing of a robin. The music was so delightful that he followed the robin and when he had travelled about four miles after the bird he heard the Angelus bell ringing. He knelt down to say the Angelus and he was so tired he fell asleep. He remained there for nearly two hundred years and when he woke up the place was changed entirely. The print of his two knees remained on the stone, and that is why they called it Cloc Mo Cuda. (049/50:0455)

Innisfallen is a small island in nearby Lough Leane. A monastic settlement was founded there by St Finian the Leper; a holy well dedicated to him can be visited not that far away in Kenmare. The island became a centre for learning and spirituality and the Annals of Inisfallen were later written here describing a history of early Ireland. Today you can take a boat out to the island and savour the peace and quiet and admire the ruins of the 12th century abbey.

I can fully understand Mochuda’s enchantment with the robin for I was under the spell of my own tame robin a while ago and he could chirp for Ireland!

This extract explains what happened to Mocuda when he finally awoke from his slumbers:

I heard about Cloc Mo Cuda. There was once a monk and he lived in the Abbey in Innisfallen. One day he saw a little robin which he followed. The robin perched on the tree that is now over the well. The monk fell asleep on the rock under the tree and he slept there for a hundred years. When he awoke he went back to the Abbey. He did not know how long he had slept. Everything seemed changed. He did not know the monk who opened the door nor the monk did not know him. The monk asked him his name and he told him.  Then the monk remembered the story he had heard about the other monk who was lost a hundred years before. He believed this monk was the long lost monk. He lived with the young monks and after a while he died. The prints of his two knees and forehead are on the rock. They are always filled with water. They never dry even on the hottest day in summer. (251-217:0455)

This was the very story the ice cream man had told me!

The bullauns are large, smooth and impressive. Mochuda had quite beefy knees. The one on the left was full of water but the one on the right was just a bit muddy.

There are actually three bullauns – the third lies on another slab just behind the double bullaun and must be where Mochuda rested his forehead. Now empty of water.

Over the years the well obviously gained a reputation for healing and became a place of pilgrimage. The robin connection remained important well into the 1930s:

Cloc Mo Cuda is about half a mile from the town of Killarney. People go there before sunrise to obtain a request or be cured. People who go there do rounds around the well and while they are walking they say the Rosary. There is a small tree over the well and if the request is granted or if the person is cured a robin will appear in the tree. My mother and three other women were going to do the rounds. On the third morning my mother and two of the women saw the robin but the other woman did not. She had gone there to be cured and a short time after she died. People are supposed to leave something on the tree as a token and they have to leave a piece of bread also for the robin. (215-217:0455)

Another extract gives precise details concerning the rounds:

This is a Triduum. The way to the Cloc was originally a public right of way. It was closed and enclosed in Kenmare Demesne by a Grand Jury Order. The custodians took the key for the old pathway from one Irwin who was caretaker at Deenagh Lodge. THE PILGRIM arrived at dawn. She brought with her:

(a) a quantity of plain water in a vessel.

(b) Three rags. They were left behind and hung on a Palm tree overhanging the stone.

(c) Some fragments of Bread. If the Robin appeared rags were given him. Some think that a priest (was) known as the “Robin” and that the “rags” were in reality the altar linen. Tradition says if the robin appears your request will be granted.

(D) The pilgrim returned to Killarney heard Mass and communicated.

(E) The prayers prescribed were the Rosary but if the pilgirm had to hurry away 5 Paters, Aves and Gloria’s sufficed.

(F) The water used by the Pilgrim from the stone for blessings was to be replaced from the stone brought. The vessel was not to be brought back.

(G) The Credo was to be recited on the flag. ( 218/219:0455)

The annual pilgrimage was made on St Mochuda’s feast day, 14th May. It was a triduum which means visits had to be made on three consecutive occasions. The custom of taking water to fill the bullauns and bring bread for the robin continued until at least the 1960s.

I’ve met St Mochuda (or Carthage) before but am not sure whether this is the same saint for I can find no mention of Inisfallen in his biographies and this Mochuda seemed to spend a lot of time asleep whereas the other was very active and exceptionally handsome – he had to build nunneries to contain smitten maidens. They do have the same saint’s date however and they were both Kerry men, so maybe ….

I revisited the well in October 2024 and both bullauns were full of water. There was even a robin singing.

Other wells dedicated to St Mochuda can be found near Kanturk and on the Beara.

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