Ritual site - holy well

The National Monuments Service's description

St. John's Well/Tobar Eoin: Located in the backyard of a dwelling-house on The Mall in Dingle town. The small spring well was provided with a modern concrete cover which has now been broken up. A small pillar stone stands at the NW side of the well. It measures 0.41m high, 0.2m wide and 0.11m thick and bears an inscribed Latin cross on its N face. The shaft of the cross terminates at base with a down-turned arc and the arms have expanded terminals. The initials FD have been carved beneath the cross in fairly recent times. Rounds were formerly made here on the 24th of June. An ogham stone was apparently discovered in an adjacent wall and removed to near the railway station (Curran) but nothing more is known of this. Ó Danachair (1960, 73) was informed that it was the cross-slab that bore the ogham inscription but there are no traces of any scores on the stone.
St. John's Well described by Ó Danachair (1960, 73) as follows; 'A small covered well in the yard of a house in the Mall, Dingle; a small pillar built into the wall beside the well has a cross and the letters F D incised on it; this pillar is said to have an ogham inscription now covered by masonry. Formerly (up to about 1900) visited as a holy well, especially on the 24th of June. In making the rounds 5 paters and 5 aves were said kneeling at the well, after which one rosary was said while making three circuits of the well and a prayer to the patron was said kneeling at the well. For the full ritual this was repeated nine times; pebbles were used to count the rounds. The well cured many ailments. Rags were hung on a thorn tree now gone. Legend: Water was taken and set to boil; it could not be heated and a trout was found in it and water and trout were returned to the well'.

See attached photos taken of Saint John’s Well and cross-inscribed stone, Dingle, Co. Kerry, courtesy of and © National Folklore Collection, UCD. The Photographic Collection, F025.18.00121 accessible online at https://www.duchas.ie/en/cbeg/16817.

The above description is derived from J. Cuppage, ‘Corca Dhuibhne. Dingle Peninsula archaeological survey. Ballyferriter. Oidhreacht Chorca Dhuibhne’ (1986), no. 934. In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research.

Revised by: Caimin O'Brien

Date of revised upload: 11 April 2022

References

Cuppage, J. 1986 Corca Dhuibhne. Dingle Peninsula archaeological survey. Ballyferriter. Oidhreacht Chorca Dhuibhne.

Ó Danachair, C. 1960 The Holy Wells of Corkaguiney, Co. Kerry. The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, 67-78.