I've been to some lovely holy wells in Ireland: Saint Patrick's Well at Tara, the Well of the Saints on Inis Mor (about which I've blogged here under JM Synge), Saint Brigid's Holy Well at Faughart Graveyard, County Louth etc, but perhaps one of the most enchanting and salubrious to be found, is Trinity Well, at a place called Carbury in County Kildare near Edenderry in County Offaly (where my paternal grandmother was born). It is in such a remote, tranquil, untouched place; so much so, that it's as if one has entered an unknown chamber or chasm of Mother Eireann. Not knowing how to get to it specifically, I was brought there by someone who had been to it many times; the time we chose was most apt like picking an apple from an apple tree when the apples have just ripened - last year's Imbolc - the start of springtime and the festival of Saint Brigid (early February). Moreover, it is actually the source of the famous River Boyne - one of the thirteen major rivers of Ireland!
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| Trinity Holy Well - right by the source of the River Boyne |
The water from the well is so pure, pristine, it seems to be imbued with the chrystalline bounty of the first waters that buoyantly bubbled and swarmed to the surface of the Emerald Isle. It remains as fresh and as invigorating, two or three weeks later; one wouldn't get any flouridation and so on, from here or indeed holy wells generally, if one used them, I dare say!! And to merely behold it and then partake of its rich fruitful essence is comparable to drinking the ambrosia of life in all its parts!
The threat and demise of Irish Holy Wells
It's sad and regrettable to say that as a part, or a microcosm of the destruction and disappearance of Ireland's heritage, the holy well like another piece of natural heritage, the bog, along with the megalithic, archaeological, architectural, cultural, is being lost to the vicissitudes of time. It is becoming harder and harder to stumble upon holy wells, on a ramble or a walk around the fields and countryside of Eireann; for many of them are covered, filled in etc, by shallow, obtuse people. So to behold one that is in a totally untouched and pristine place like Carbury is very endearing and heart warming, as endearing and heart warming, as hearing the lowing of cattle in a meadow below or the bleating of sheep or a wee lamb in the midst of the Golden Vale of Ireland!
The untouched 'Hidden' canopy of Carbury
In many ways Carbury is, cut off from the material world; it's like a natural recess or alcove. Approximately 200 metres from the Trinity Well, at the top of Carbury Hill is the ruined and abandoned Carbury Castle, standing there still, for any wanderer or rambler to stumble upon! It was owned by the Colley family, who were the patrilineal ancestors of the Duke of Wellington (Arthur Wellesley); his uncle Richard Colley, for instance, had associations with Trim, County Meath, as well. Interestingly, the hill is also called Faery Hill, and this seems in keeping with the place generally, with its significance of being the source of the River Boyne and its tranquility, much like floating under an untouched 'hidden' canopy.
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| Carbury Castle at the top of the Faery Hill - Ireland of the shadows! |
To behold such natural relics as Irish Holy Wells, is like revisiting the cauldron of the mystical, sacred wisdom, of the majestic Emerald Isle from its golden sun of the past. They uplift, renew, reenergise, reinvigorate and replenish with their chrystalline waters and none more so than the untouched, largely unseen and tranquil Carbury - the muse is alive and well here! 'Though it's lamentable that such a natural and health inducing emblem of Ireland is being lost; at least at Carbury, I hope, it will always remain there and not fall into that category. For visiting it at Springtime, is an auspicious and apt introduction to the new season.
PS To the person who got me there by car, and saved me walking around and around, I extend my gratitude.
