What is recorded here

Ballynakilly held Good Friday patterns until the 1950s, drawing people around two stone-lined wells and an old tree at its south end. They walked a living circle, not a dead fact, while a fine gullane called a font waited nearby. That water and stone may have marked courage, memory or mercy. To visit now is to join an interrupted dance and remind the place that human life still recognizes it.

Holy well described by O'Sullivan and Sheehan (1996, 325, no. 983) as; 'Two stone-lined wells, formerly visible within the enclosure, and an old tree at its S end, acted as focal points for a pattern that was held here on Good Fridays up until the 1950s (local information). O'Connell reported a particularly fine gullane known locally as a font' here (The Kerryman, 28/1/1939); this feature is no longer visible and may have been a bullaun stone'. The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Kerry. Volume I: South-West Kerry' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 2009). 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: 3 May 2022

Linked to an unspecified saint or local tradition, the holy well was a focus for a pattern or pilgrimage, with the stone-lined wells and an old tree serving as key ritual elements. Such sites were often associated with healing or seasonal rites in Irish folk practice.

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