What is recorded here

No visible church, no shrine, no stone marker. Only a spring feeding a shallow hollow on a slope above a white beach, with gorse and heather around it. That absence makes the well harder to dismiss, because the water still performs the same act: emerging, collecting, flowing downward toward the sea. The chamber contains no victim, no fake teacher, no invented story. It contains an ordinary holy well, still measurable and still named.

In rough gorse and heather-covered grazing land, on a SW-facing slope overlooking a beach known locally as 'Trá Bhán', on the S side of Hare Island. A spring well called 'Tobar a' Luibín' emerges from the base of a SW-facing field boundary and flows into a naturally occurring hollow (0.6m NE-SW; 0.5m NW-SE; D 0.4m) from which it flows in a SW direction towards the seashore. In the 1930s it was recorded that people with sore eyes used to visit the well, say prayers there and bathe their eyes in the well water (Daly 2000, 45). People suffering from pains and other illnesses also used to visit the well (ibid.) The above description is derived from 'The Archaeological Inventory of County Cork. Volume 5' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 2009). Date of upload: 22 December 2009 Images provided by and copyright of Amanda Clarke 2016-2022 https://holywellscorkandkerry.com/

Linked to St. Lurcan, the well is traditionally associated with cures for skin ailments and was historically visited for ritual washing. Local folklore suggests the saint once hid from Viking invaders on the island, and the well's waters are believed to have healing properties from the relics he carried.

The monument record does not grant public access. Check the route and ask the landowner before entering private land.