All Saints Well, Dromavrauka, Co. Kerry

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Holy Sites & Wells

All Saints Well, Dromavrauka, Co. Kerry

In the wooded ground near Loo Bridge in County Kerry, spring water seeps through a fissure in the rock and collects in a shallow, irregular pool barely two feet across and four inches deep.

It is an easy thing to overlook, yet this small hollow has accumulated several layers of sanctity over the centuries. Five cross-inscribed stones are associated with the site; one lies submerged in the well water itself, while the other four are placed somewhat haphazardly around the margins. Cross-inscribed stones are among the more common markers of early Irish sacred sites, used to claim or reinforce the Christian character of a place, and their presence here in such number suggests the well has drawn devotional attention for a very long time.

The well carries a plural name, All Saints Well, though its identity is not entirely settled. St Finbarr, the sixth-century founder of the monastery at Gougane Beara a short distance to the south, is also connected to it, and local tradition supplies a quietly comic explanation: the saint is said to have dropped his spectacles on this spot while travelling to perform religious exercises at Gougane Beara. The imprint of those spectacles, the story goes, remains visible in the rock. By 1942, when a survey recorded details of the site under its Irish name Tobar na Naomh, meaning Saint's Well, the patronal devotion had shifted somewhat. St Agatha was then recognised as patron of the parish, and a pilgrimage was made to the well on her feast day, the 5th of February each year, with rounds, the traditional practice of walking a prescribed circuit in prayer, made around the base of the mountain. Good Friday is also observed at the well, again with rounds, so the site holds more than one date in the liturgical calendar.

The well sits in a wooded area at the base of a rock outcrop, accessed along a stony path that follows a small stream flowing north-westward from the spring. It lies roughly 200 yards from Loo Bridge, which places it within easy reach of the road while remaining sheltered enough to feel genuinely apart from it. The stone lying in the water is worth looking for; its cross inscription is the kind of detail that rewards a slow look rather than a passing glance.

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