Ritual site - holy well

The National Monuments Service's description

Folklore collected from Ballymacelligott School recorded the following tradition: ' Finne Caol (or Caobh or Chaobh) - Situated in James Blennerhassetts at Gort 'Sléib[h]e. Children are cured there. There is no bottom to it. Rounds were made there up to about 1890. One should go before sunrise. If persons were seen near it, the cure was frustrated. About 1880 Mrs. Lyons came here three mornings and on the third morning when going away she met William Myles. She was not at all thankful to him though her rounds were completed & her cure finished. The special date is connected with the well. The secretiveness was perhaps, an old pagan desire to prevent human respect & unworthy motives in the devotees. Pat McQuinn of Currane's Parish tells the origin of the well. A woman not of this world used to come washing to a house in Magh Glas (where Richard Mc Elligott now lives). No one ever stayed to see her washing, until one night two spalpeens watched her. When she noticed this she went out the south door. They followed her towards James Hassetts where William Myles lived then. At the last her steps were becoming longer & longer. Finally her right foot went down & she disappeared. The well then sprang up. She never came again to wash. The water in the well can be taken as a cure when fever stricken.
A further detail comes from John Donoghue (c. 1870) who heard it from Thomas Moriarty (1825-1925). "One man followed her. His name was Pickett. She cursed him thus "May his name be ever scarce & may he have not four of his name to shoulder his coffin" (The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0443, Pages 055-6; https://www.duchas.ie/en/cbes/4706340/4704124).
Folklore collected from Ballyseedy School recorded that; 'There was a well situated in Gortalea long ago, at which people who had sickness or any disease would go to pay "rounds". They should go three mornings in succession and they should not be seen going there by anyone. If they were seen they would die.
A woman went to the well for two mornings and she was not seen by anyone. On the third morning, as she was going along the road, she heard somebody walking after her. She looked back and saw a strange woman walking after her, who asked her where was she going. She answered she was going to pay rounds at the well. The woman turned back home and in a week after she died. After dying she used to be seen near the well' (The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0442, Page 134;https://www.duchas.ie/en/cbes/4706336/4703850).
Ó Danachair (1958, 163) recorded the following about this doubtful well; '"Finughea Well" on 1900 map. "Finnehy Well" local. A pool, about four yards in diameter, said to be bottomless, in a marshy field. Said to have been a holy well formerly, and to have cured, among others, a crippled girl. Legend: If one going to seek a cure met another person, the cure was not obtained'.
The holy well was described by O'Hare (2000, 66-7) as; 'The presence of Finughea Well is' recorded on both editions of the OS maps. It is described by the OSNB (1841 Ballymacelligott 2 37) as a well c. 8ft (c. 2.43m) broad of unknown depth, with pure spring water rising from limestone rocks. It was said to have taken its name from the McElligotts' housemaid, who was drowned in it. The spring has been largely drained away, however the area is still wet and boggy. The landowner informed the author that the believed to have been made by a witch who lived in a small house, immediately south of a ringfort, which is situated a number of fields to the south of the well, on the far side of the Great Southern & Western Railway line. She was making a brew one day when a man called Pickett (Piggott?) chased her down to this spot; she disappeared into the well and was never seen again'.

Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien

Date of upload: 29 April 2022

References

O'Hare, P. 2000 Holy wells and other sites of pilgrimage within a portion of East Kerry. Journal of the Kerry Archaeological and Historical Society 29, 55-98.

OSNB - Ordnance Survey Name Books. Pro-forma books arranged by Civil Parish for recording townland and other name-forms and compiled in the course of the OS 6-inch survey 1824-1841. The name books also include minor names and incidental references to antiquities. National Archives of Ireland.

Ó Danachair, C. 1958 The Holy Wells of North County Kerry. Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 88, 153-63.