Kerry Head is a tiny peninsula jutting out into the Atlantic, the very limit of North Kerry. It is incredibly scenic and remote but home to several interesting holy wells. Today’s destination was St Macadaw’s church and holy well in the townland of Glenderry, a place of much folklore and tradition connected with one particular family – the Corridons (also spelled Corridan).
St Macadaw’s Church, Kilvicada
Nestled amongst the farmsteads are the remains of St Macadaw’s Church also known as Kilvicada Church or St Erc’s Church. This entry from the Schools’ Folklore Collection describes how it got its unusual name :
Kilmicada is a very ancient church and lies on the southern slopes of Kerry Head in the parish of Ballyheigue. The father of St Erc was Deagdadh and this church, it is believed, bears the family name of Erc, hence it is called Church of Son of Deagdadh in other words the Church of St Erc. Nearby there is a holy well and it has the same name as the church.
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The early Medieval church, now in ruins, is made of large sandstone blocks and is surrounded by an enclosed graveyard.
A plaque on the walls confirms the association with St Erc, believed to be the first Bishop of Kerry:
Ruins of a pre-Norman church dedicated to St. Erc, son of Deaghadh, a bishop who lived at Lerig and was associated with St. Brendan. Bishop Erc died A.D. 512 and was buried on Dunmore Head, opposite the Blaskets. Privilege of burial here is reserved exclusively to local Corridon families.
It was from here that St Erc saw a bright light heralding the birth of St Brendan (whom he later baptised at Ardfert):
… According to legendary accounts a monastery existed in Keel at a very early age, for it is said that Bishop Erc often visited there. During one of his visits a bright light was seen from Keel across the Bay around the slopes of Mt Brandon. The Bishop on being consulted told the monks that light revealed that a great saint of the Church was born that night.That night they set out from Keelmacada, found the newborn Babe, whom Bishop Erc baptised and who was no other than the great St Brendan.
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And even today, when a member of the Corridon family dies a light is said to shine out across the bay from Mount Brandon:
… It is said that the old Church is sometimes seen enveloped in a bright light which is a sign that death is approaching one of the Corridon family. Many people have seen the light and in every case the truth of the saying is fulfilled for a funeral goes to the old church always after the appearance.
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I was delighted to be contacted by Daniel Downey who confirmed this practice. His mother is a Corridon and she recalled seeing the lights herself:
Thank you for your story on Kilvicada or as my 90 year old mother calls it, Kill. I told her what you wrote about the lights from Mt. Brandon when a Corridon dies and she said she saw them when her grandfather Phillip died. She used to refer to them when I was younger as fairy lights which might suggest their origin was pre-Christian.
Daniel Downey
The graveyard continues to remain exclusively for members of the family, again confirmed by Daniel:
… 1982 was the first time I visited Kilvicada, accompanied by my wife Doris and my Great Aunt Hanna Mary. My grandmother had died a little over a month before. In the manner of the family her body was prepared, laid in a simple box and waked and buried after mass at St. Mary’s. At the cemetery, which is contained within the walls of the church ruins, the stone that covered the section reserved for this part of the family was moved and my grandfather James and his brother Phillip were disinterred. There desiccated bones were removed from the rotted pine boxes and reinterred, creating enough room for my grandmother to be buried vertically. When I visited, their coffins were leaning against the rear wall.
Daniel Downey
Next to the church is a square mound made from large haphazard blocks of stone. This has been described as a burial place or leacht. In the centre is an upright pillar, its sides sculpted. On its top is a roundish speckled stone – the bulley. It has now been firmly cemented in place as it is a homing stone and should it be moved will always find its way home – someone was taking precautions though.
Also referred to as an amulet, it is one of two possible stones that were said to have been blessed by St Erc and is imbued with considerable powers and significance, again especially by the Corridon family. The Irish Topographical and General Survey for County Kerry (ITA) complied in 1942 recorded that this stone in the graveyard was slightly inferior to the second stone, still in the personal keeping of a Corridon:
In the graveyard at Kilvicadaw is a grave-like mound which supports a foot high cylindrical rock surmounted by a smooth circular stone, about as large as an orange. This is believed by some to be the ancient amulet, but the Corridon family state that the real stone is carefully preserved in the house of the last person to make the ’rounds’ and is there collected by the next sufferer. Incidentally the stone, like the graveyard, is strictly the property of the Corridon family and is not efficacious when used by an outsider.
It seems that it is the second stone, which remains in a private place in a family house, has the most power and is considered to be: the cure for all evils that flesh is heir to (ITA) but only if used by a male member of the Corridon family. Daniel Downey described his encounter with the stone in the 1980s:
While there we saw a young boy and asked him about the stone kept by the family (the other one sits on a pedestal in the grounds of the church). He took us to his house and retrieved the stone from a bucket above the stove. For the first time in her then 80 year life my great Aunt held the bauley in her hand.
Daniel Downey
St Macadaw’s Well, St Erc’s Well, St Brigid’s Well
The bulley is also used to activate the holy well. The well, with its multiple dedications (I’m not sure how St Brigid fits in to the story), lies several hundred metres away towards the sea in a wild and windswept spot. But how to find it?
The little hamlet was deserted on the day we went, most people I suspect having already headed to Ballyheigue for the pattern day. I knocked on the nearest door and chatted to a woman who was married to a Corridon. She knew of the well but said it would be impossible to access at the moment as it was so overgrown. She said her husband knew where it was but was not around. Frustratingly we too had to leave the site as the pattern beckoned so I have yet to actually see the well. The best I can offer is an image taken from Ballyheigue- our Christian Heritage by Bryan MacMahon.
This shows the well to be flush with the ground, circular and surrounded by large slabs of stones. The bulley is being placed in the water, activating the healing qualities of the well. As you might now suspect, only a member of the Corridon family can activate the well, only they can pay rounds and only they will benefit from a cure.
The stone would be taken from its place in the house and the Family would walk around the well in a clockwise direction whilst praying. Only The Corridans had the privilege of paying rounds at this well and it was not used by the general public. When the stone was put in the well, the power of the stone was activated and this could only be done by a Blood Corridan. No one who married into the Family could use the stone effectively. Still further, the healing power of the well worked only on Blood Corridans.
Corridon Connection, blog
Once the well was activated, the water could be collected and drunk. Alternatively water from the well could be taken back to the house and the bulley put in it there. This ritual is similar to butter stones which were often placed in churns to activate the butter. The name bulley or booley with its reference to cattle also hints at this (bó is Irish for cow). The stone is said to remain moist and cool even on hot days. The ITA gives a few more details about the ritual:
A quantity of water and moss taken from the well at Killvicadaw (300 yards east of the church) is placed in the vessel with the stone and the water then rubbed three times to the afflicted part of the body , while the ’rounds’ are made .
Walter and Mary Brenneman visited the site in 1980 and were fortunate to meet the then patriarch of the Corridon family and keeper of the bulley, the late Michael Corridon, who showed them the stone and demonstrated how to use it. They also delved deeper into this extraordinary place with its monuments and artefacts uniquely associated with one family:
The Corridan compound on Kerry Head is a self-contained and self generating place with no dependence upon the external world, spiritually or physically. It gives birth to, sustains, heals and buries its own. The holy well plays the role of center and place of orientation. Because the power of the well is limited to the Corridans born on the head, the nature of the power is loric* not sacred. To be sure, the healing force of the well is understood as being supernatural and luminous, a quality it has in common with the sacred, but the numinosity manifests itself as intimacy and cannot be approached by those not born from the ‘place’. The well carries with it the awesome power that does not extend beyond the head … the focus is on the particularity of the geographical surroundings that situate the well and the people who dwell there and upon the particular nature of the water of the well itself, that is, its particular healing power …
Crossing the Circle at the Holy Wells of Ireland, University Press of Virginia, 1995
*By loric the Brennemans imply the lore of a thing or place whose power/fascination arises from its particular space in the landscape.
One final word about this intriguing well which I have yet to see! In 1541 Heneas MacNichaill, having murdered his son, sought absolution from the Dean of Armagh. His penance was to visit 19 pilgrimage destinations the length and breadth of Ireland and one of those named was this remarkable site. This is especially interesting when you consider the status of some of the other places mentioned: Glendalough, Skellig Michael, Cashel and St Patrick’s Purgatory on Lough Derg – the latter even now considered the Iron Man of Pilgrimages!
Remarkable story – is this the only family Holy Well in Ireland I wonder.
I’m not sure, more research will be needed!
Very cool!
My mother is a Corridon born in Dreenagh on a farm that came as dowry when my grandfather James Corridon married my grandmother Josie (nee O’Hara). I was raised in Jersey City with 9 immigrants from Kerryhead, 8 of them Corridons. 1982 was the first time I visited Kilvicada, accompanied by my wife Doris and my Great Aunt Hanna Mary. My grandmother had died a little over a month before. In the manner of the family her body was prepared, laid in a simple box and waked and buried after mass at St. Mary’s. At the cemetery, which is contained within the walls of the church ruins, the stone that covered the section reserved for this part of the family was moved and my grandfather James and his brother Phillip were disinterred. There desiccated bones were removed from the rotted pine boxes and reinterred, creating enough room for my grandmother to be buried vertically. When I visited, their coffins were leaning against the rear wall. While there we saw a young boy and asked him about the stone kept by the family(the other one sits on a oedestal in the grounds of the church). He took us to his house and retrieved the stone from a bucket above the stove. For the first time in her then 80 year life my great Aunt held the bauley in her hand. Aunt Hanna Mary filled me in on a couple of facts about the cemetery especially the giant (relatively) vault that takes up a quarter of the area of the church. It was put there by a priest living in Australia in honor of his father. My aunt was discussing it like it happened last week, 70 years later. Another thing she mentioned was how unbaptized babies were buried inside the grounds but outside the church. In1999 I revisited only to find several modern look graves filling the churchyard. I took that to mean that after maybe a millenium of burials or potentiall millenias since this site with it view of the setting sun may have been used pre-Christian was no longer active in the way it once was.
Hi Daniel and apologies for my late reply to your comment so full of rich information.The Corridon connection with Kerry Head has such a long and interesting history, the custodianship of the bulley being especially fascinating. I would have loved to see the one kept in the bucket! Did you manage to visit the holy well? Time I went back for a reinvestigation! Thanks so much for this extra insight.
Thank you for your story on Kilvicada or as my 90 year old mother calls it, Kill. I told her what you wrote about the lights from Mt. Brandon when a Corridon dies and she said she saw them when her grandfather Phillip died. She used to refer to them when I was younger as fairy lights which might suggest their origin was pre-Christian. To answer your question I have never seen the well. As a blood Corridon but not one born there I wonder if the well would work for me or my son Sean or grandson Logan. Corridons didn’t leave Kerryhead until the 20th Century so who knows. Hopefully, we won’i ever be in need of a miracle!
So interesting. I’d love to now if your mother ever visited the well or if she has any stories about it, or the bulley – it is so important to record this information. How fascinating re lights. I’m sure this well has a very long pre Christian history and was once very important as shown by the fact that it was visited as part of a penitential pilgrimage in the 16C. May I include your information in the blog?
feel free. it’s oral history and the old ones are going. I’m not sure if the stories can survive without sites like yours
We may be related! I grew up with stories of the blue light from Mt Brandon when one of our family members passes. My grandmother was a Corden (spelling was changed after emigration to US). My mother did get a call from family in the area after they saw the light when my grandmother passed. I’m planning a trip there within the next year or so. This family story has always fascinated me!
~Catherine ☘️
Catherine, how exciting to hear from you too! How interesting that the light story is going strong and I’m sure you must somehow be related to Daniel! I intend to go there myself fairly soon and try and locate the well. Many thanks for your comment. Amanda