An Epic Pilgrimage for Michaelmas

There is a very picturesque area near Baile an Sceilg, Ballinskelligs, on the Iveragh Peninsula in Kerry known as the Glen. It stretches from Duchalla Head to Puffin Island, encompassing the enigmatic Skellig Rocks nine miles off the coast. The most famous rock, Sceilg Mhíchíl, Skellig Michael, was an early Christian settlement, where the monks lead lives of extreme solitude and contemplation:

Early Irish monks, wishing to emulate the sacrifice and pure withdrawal into a life of faith exemplified by St. Anthony going out into the desert, found a parallel experience—the remote and deserted Irish offshore islands. The monastic ideal was to demonstrate an intense devotion by such extreme acts of self-exile: peregrinatio pro Dei amore, ‘pilgrimage for the love of God.’ Here, the love of God was brought to a new level, as no other Irish monastery was built in such a challenging location.

visitballingskelligs.ie

Today it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site which continues to exert a fascination over a wide variety of people from tourists to archaeologists, Christians to Star Wars fans, each prepared to undergo the notoriously rough sea trip. Being an appalling sailor, I have yet to make the voyage.

Although St Finián is reputed to have founded the first monastery on the largest of the desolate rocks in the sixth century, it is St Michael the Archangel who tends to get the glory and it is he who is still patron saint of this picturesque area (though St Finián is not entirely forgotten as shall be seen later.)

When the monks finally left the rock sometime in the late ninth century and arrived on the mainland near Ballinskelligs they settled down by the sea, still facing out to their spiritual home, Skellig Michael. Their priory is in ruins but the nearby holy well is still flourishing, both dedicated to St Michael. In fact there are four wells in the vicinity, each connected and each once visited in an epic pattern at Michaelmas, the 29th September. The pattern appropriately started at St Michael’s Well in Dungeagan continued to St Buonia’s Well on Kilkeaveragh Mountain, on to St Finián’s Well overlooking the sea and finally back to Kilkeaveragh mountain to Tobairin.

Come with me as we attempt the pilgrimage – a challenging 9.5 kilometres or 6 miles as the crow flies. It might take a while, I suggest a cuppa while you’re at it.

St Michael’s Well, Tobar Mhíchíl, Ballinskelligs

The first holy well is located in Dungeagan village just outside Ballinskelligs and is clearly signed.

First we must walk past a row of houses and through what looks like someone’s garden to a gap in the hedge. The world then opens up, fields sloping steeply down to the sea, with windblown trees and ancient stone walls. It will probably be blowing a hoolie but will look magnificent.

A rickety gate leads into the site.

The area is enclosed, boggy and full of interesting things, the first being the well.

It’s a sturdy beehive structure, a cross inscribed on the lintel. What is instantly noticeable is the well is now dry and another well has sprung up, or been deliberately channelled, fairly close to the the original.

A smaller stone construction has been built over the spring which flows off down the field in a meandering route.

The water is rather scummy and uninviting but as Charles Smith noted in The Ancient and Present State of the County of Kerry,1756, many people once came:

… some bringing their sick, blind and lame friends, in order, as they imagine, to be healed by this miraculous water.

The miraculousness of the water can be noted by the rounds: there is a pathway around the well marked by seven stones, each a stopping off point or station. Each stone is marked with a number and the name of the part of the body that that area is particularly useful for: 1= knees; 2 = Hips, 3= Fertility, 4= liver, 5= Heart, 6= Neck and 7 = head. The water is also said to cure lameness and blindness.

I think these stepping off points are relatively new. There are no obvious signs of them in these images from the the National Folklore Photographic Collection, nor is there any sign of the current water source.

A hand painted sign helpfully shows where to start the round.

Three rounds are required but six or nine rounds are also acceptable should you be feeling especially pious, reciting the rosary all the while:

One walks around the well three times, six times or nine times while saying the rosary. When you start you should take ten stones and throw the tenth stone away. When you have made a round, you should a stone on the stone heap until you have made nine rounds. The right hand should be to the Well while marking the Pilgrimage. A pin, penny or button, or a piece of cloth is left at the Well, or somewhere among the stones, when you leave. (visitballinskelligs.ie)

Usually a pilgrim would pick up the required number of pebbles re rounds – nine if doing nine rounds etc and deposit one each time a round was completed. The tenth stone is an unusual feature as is keeping your hand on the well whilst circumambulating.

On starting, the pilgrim was expected to take 10 stones and throw the tenth stone away. Each time the pilgrim had made a round, a stone was placed on the stone heap until nine rounds had been made. The right hand had to be on the well while marking the pilgrimage.

ballinskelligs.ie

There are several heaps of stones still on the site which must explain this custom though some look pretty hefty. Another suggestion is that these stones are all that remain of a fulacht fiadh or ancient cooking area.

The most popular days for paying the rounds were St Michael’s Eve, 28th September and St Michael’s Day, 29th September:

Rounds are performed here on the Eve of St Michael’s Day and many objects such as medals, crosses, beads, buttons, scapulars, nails and threads from shawl fringes, may be seen deposited between the stones of the cell.

Holy Wells near Ballinskelligs, Henry S Crawford, Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, 1915

As usual once the rounds were completed the celebrations began:

When the rounds were done at the well people rushed to join the celebrating. There was plenty of eating and drinking and courting (and fighting!) in the village. In the old days there were booths for the sale of drink and sweets. The card man would be there, and also a man selling toys. The day would be spent with sport and pastimes. Many people used to drink during the day, and would sing (and quarrel!) at night. The pattern was not approved of by the clergy in the old days because of the drinking and fighting, so it was not celebrated for many years. In recent years it has been revived and last year (2013) we had a Pattern Festival for three days.

visitballinskelligs.ie

This year, 2019, the pattern day is thriving but we have to continue our turas before joining in the fun.

St Buonia’s Well, Tobar Buaine, Killbuonia

It’s a bit of a walk now I’m afraid but it’s worth it for St Buonia’s Well is to be found in the middle of an ecclesiastical settlement high up on the slopes of Kilkeaveragh Mountain. There’s no sign that anything interesting lies up there and It’s tough going  – very boggy, with plenty of brambles and gorse, plus a few watchful cattle in the distance. But as we start ascending the views are phenomenal – as always the sea glitters in the distance and the twin peaks of the Skelligs are clearly visible. The mountain itself is green and enfolding. There is a huge tranquility and something else, hard to define – a sort of feeling of coming upon a quiet secret, a hidden treasure. You might have to sit down, as I did, and just contemplate and soak it all in before doing the rounds.

This is an incredibly rich site, described by PJ Lynch in his paper Some of the Antiquities around St Finan’s Bay, County Kerry , as a laura, another word for an early ecclesiastical settlement. The plan below, featured in his paper, shows the general layout. It consists of two terraces cut into the hillside, stone steps joining the two levels. The upper terrace contains a rich variety of monuments including a ruined oratory, a gable shrine, holed stones and a cross slab. The lower terrace mainly consists of huts sites and clocháns; and the holy well.

The site is seemingly entered through two upright stones – are these all that remain of an original portal to a building? Whatever, it feels right to walk through them.

The oratory lies on the upper layer, collapsed and hard to distinguish.

Just below are the remains of a gable shrine. This is what it looked like when I first visited, several years ago now.

Today the cross slab has been straightened and modern slabs of slate inserted inside the gable shrine, replicating the original triangular shape.

The shrine is probably the burying place of a saint or holy person and is still known locally as the priest’s grave.

The triangular end facing west is heavily inscribed with a Latin cross and just below is a small round hole through which pilgrims could place offerings. Inside the shrine are a variety of pebbles, some of them quartz.

The cross slab features a deeply grooved Latin cross with bifid terminals, beneath which is a smaller cross which is enclosed within a lozenge (Archaeological Inventory.) The two monuments make a powerful statement on this lonely hillside.

Nearby there is a clochán with a well preserved lintelled doorway.

And on a jumble of stone walls are two holed stones. The holes are small and easy to miss.

Lynch references HM Westropp in his paper who suggested how they were used:

…. another custom of the rude ages, was that of lighting lamps in cemeteries and in tombs, in honour of the dead. These holes, therefore, may have been used for placing lamps by night as a kind of tribute to the memory of the dead.

HM WEstropp, Gentleman’s Magazine, 1865

The well lies further down the slope and takes a bit of finding. In 1902 Lynch described it as:

…  a clear mountain spring, around which the pious peasants have raised a large cairn of pebbles, the countless record of the rounds which have been paid there for ages.

This photograph accompanied the description.

This is what it looked like in 1946 as recorded by Caoimhín Ó Danachair .

Today it is a challenge to locate, the cairn made by the pious peasants having been covered by rampant growth of fuchsia and briars and the area surrounding it is treacherously boggy. This photo shows what it looked like once I had cleared away the foliage a little.

The stone with the pilgrims’ cross remains, though broken in three. Closer examination shows it contains not just a cross but a rather wonderful carving  – a serene face gazes out, surely St Buonia herself.

It’s hard to see all the details but the stone is inscribed with the face of the saint and the words: SAINT …. E PRAY FOR HER THAT ERECTED THIS. She smiles out, two tiny arms clasped in front of her. Above two winged angels smile benignly down.

What looks like a sketch is in fact a tracing done on site by MJ Delap in 1911 and appeared in Some Holy Wells in Valentia and Portmagee, published in the Kerry Archaeological Magazine:

I have traced the old cutting only; the lower central cross is nearly gone now, and some of the lettering.

The stone probably dates from the 18th century but who commissioned it and caused it to be erected is unknown.

Although it was hard to see where the actual well was, the water is still being used and is abundant.

Right, we’d better pay the rounds. PJ Lynch describes the procedure:

The religious observance at the well is not confined to any festival but generally made on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. It consists of making nine rounds and the recitation of the Rosary, each round finishing at the priest’s grave. The sign of the cross is scored on the gallaun beside it or on the end stone of the grave, and a votive offering, a hair pin, button or generally the tassel from a woollen shawl, worn by all the peasantry in Kerry, is passed through the hole in the end stone of the grave.

The reference to the woollen shawls is interesting and the hole still remains in the gable shrine. The requirement for nine rounds and the cairn at the well suggests that pilgrims also used stones to record how many rounds they had made, a stone being deposited each time a round had been completed, much the same as at St Michael’s Well.

A final thought up here on the mountain. Who was St Buonia? There are many theories and these are my favourites: she was the sister of St Patrick who built a settlement for women up here on this wild yet peaceful spot (another sister, Darerca, had a well on nearby Valentia, are they same woman?); she was the friend St Brendan was visiting when he got waylaid by dying heathens again on Valentia Island; and she somehow is related to St Erc who baptised St Brendan at Tobar Na  Molt who took her under his wing to enable her to set up her settlement.

And other suggestions are that St Buonia was a he not a she  – St Beonas or St Beonaigh, or even St Brendan himself.

Edit: Cill Buaine was visited in November 2023 as part of the Skellig Coast Archaeology Festival. The undergrowth has been substantially cleared and some renovations carried out. More information here.

Right, we’re not finished yet – back down the mountain and now we’re heading towards the sea and St Finián’s Bay.

St Finián’s Well, Tobar Fhionáin

The third well is the turas is dedicated to St Finián, or Fíonán or Finan and is announced by a rather flamboyant sign just off the Skelligs Ring.

This is what the well looked like in 1947 as recorded by Caoimhín Ó Danachair. Tucked Into the hillside it has a small lintelled structure covering a copious spring.

Today the well is still modest, but attractive, a stone well house now covers the spring, complete with a carved name stone in a decorative arch.

The well is flush with the ground, the original rectangular basin remaining, the water clear and fresh. It flows off towards the sea in a grassy channel.

Offerings of shells, coins and rosaries are laid on the shelf above the well, which is marked with an inscribed cross. Across the road is another well-like structure, presumably connected in some way.

Rounds were made here on 29th September and on the saints feast day,16th March. There is much confusion over which St Finián’s is being celebrated here. 11 saints are listed in the Dictionary of Irish Saints by Pádraig Ó Riain as bearing the name St Finián – or a form of this name. The 16th March is the feast day of Finián Lebhar, the leprous one but the general opinion among scholars is that this well is dedicated to St Finián Cam, the squinty eyed or bent one, and his feast day is the 7th April. His mother was a virgin who conceived whilst swimming in Lake Killarney – let that be a lesson. He was educated by St Brendan and is associated with Innisfallen (in Lake Killarney), Waterville (another lake) and Kinnitty. He is also said to have founded the first monastic site on Skellig Michael and there is another well dedicated to him on Valentia Island.

There is an odd story associated with him as recounted by PJ Lynch:

In the folklore of the Glen there is a legend connected with St Finan which does not appear in either the Acts of Finan Cam or Finan the Leper, and would go far to establish a separate identity. It is said that at the time St Finan lived in the Glen, a pagan named Maolmourna, who also lived there, disliked the saint, and hired a man to murder him in the morning as he entered church to celebrate mass, and instructed him to be prepared with a dagger at the church door and stab to the heart the first man who would enter, and who would be St Finan. It happened that on that morning his attendant put on the saint’s boots in mistake for his own, and so delayed him. Maolmourna, anxious to see his designs executed, hastened to the church, and, entering first, received the dagger thrust of the assassin, and was killed.

PJ Lynch, Some of the Antiquities around St Finan’s Bay, County Kerry

Jut to make matters even more confusing Conan mac Mourna or Conan Maol (the bald)  features in the Fenian Cycle as an ally of Fionn Mac Cumhaill. It seems a lot of stories are getting entwined here.

Much to ponder on but rounds are now required – I have been unable to find out how many exactly but decades of the rosary need to be recited while doing them. Nearby are the ruins of Killemlagh Church, a 12th century church, reputedly built on an earlier church founded by St Finián. It’s notable for some attractive windows and a possible ogham stone built into the wall.

Rounds were also paid here by those  seeking a cure of diseases of a scrofulous nature. This harks back to St Finian the Leper again, for, according to Patrick Logan in his excellent book The Holy Wells of Ireland:

… (St Finián) used a fern which grew on the ruined church there to treat this leprosy, and in this way the herb was given its healing power. The fern is called cos dubh (black foot) and has been identified as Asplenium Adiantum Nigrum which is also used to treat other skin diseases.

Patrick Logan, The Holy Wells of Ireland

Time to leave the Finián’s Bay and head for the final well in this epic pilgrimage. Are you still with me?

It’s quite a haul as we leave the coast and stagger up the very steep and windy route back towards Kileaveragh Mountain but the views out to Valentia Island and Caherciveen are spectacular. Be careful, it’s a dangerous road for pedestrians!

Tobairin, St John’s Well, Coomanaspig, Tobernaspoge, Well of the Nine Bishops, Tobar na Naoi nEaspag

This little well seems to have an abundance of names: it’s marked as Coomanaspig Well on the historic OS maps; Lynch says it was also called St John’s Well; it’s referred to as Tobar na Naoi nEaspag, Well of the Nine Bishops by An Seabhac in 1954, and now known as Tobairin, or Little Well. One interesting account of how it received one of these names is offered in a visitor’s information booklet:

Tobar Chum an Easpaig Holy Well: Also called Tobairin, St John’s Well and the Well of the nine Bishops. The story goes that a local man was coming home from the pub on Small Christmas Night (6th Jan) when a great thirst came over him around midnight. He knelt down at the well and took a long sweet drink from it but quickly realised it wasn’t water he was drinking but pure wine. A voice told him that one day his descendants would have the power to change water into wine, the blood of Christ. He later emigrated to America, married and had nine sons. All nine became bishops and the prophecy was fulfilled.

Skellig Coast: your essential guide

How he staggered up there at midnight is impressive. Having survived the hair pin bends and steep inclines, whether on foot or even more scarily by car, the little well is a relief to see, tucked into the hillside right on the side of the road (thankfully there is a small layby on the other side of the road for those in a car). I have been twice, the first time it was snowing.

The second time the views looked very different.

It is the final well to be visited in our turas :

Coomanaspig or tobernaspoge, sometimes called St John’s Well is in the townland of Coomanaspig. It lies on the western slope of Kilkeeveragh Mountain, on the right hand side of the road from Portmagee to the Glen. ‘A clear little rill and issuing from the mountainside, and esteemed the holist well in Kerry. (Kerry by CP Crane DSO). Rounds are made here during the patrún at Dungeagan, when the pilgrims visit all the holy wells in succession, beginning with St Michael’s in Dungeagan, then St Buonia’s and St Finan’s in the Glen and ending at St John’s, or Toberspoge, on Kilkeeveragh Mountain.

MJ Delap, Some Holy Wells in Valentia & Portmagee

Tobairin is neatly kept and still active. There is a grotto dedicated to the BVM, watched over by St Bernadette, opened and blessed in 1994.

An altar, erected at the same time, gives the details.

Below lies the well approached with care as it’s below the surface of the road and quite tricky to access. The water is fresh and clear.

There is evidence that the well has long been revered as there are numerous stones with crosses inscribed upon them by countless pilgrims.

And offerings are abundant: rosaries, cards, shells, flowers.

I’ve been unable to find out how the rounds were paid – there’s not much space and you’d be in severe danger from the traffic. Maybe this final destination was just a place for contemplation and prayer:

May our Lady bless you in your goings,

     your comings and your stayings.

May she bless you in your thinking

     your doings and your sayings

May she bless you in your joys

      and bless you when you weep

May she bless you in your waking

     and bless you when asleep

May she keep her arms around you

     and fold you in her heart

May you meet with her and Jesus

     where you never more will part. Amen

We have achieved our pilgrimage and can feel virtuous and take in the views. Unfortunately, it’s still a long walk back to wherever you started out! Happy Michaelmas.

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