
What is recorded here
St Bartholomews Well hides a small rectangular chamber beneath a four-foot stone mound, reached through a six-yard passage cut into the southern slope. People once walked that dark tunnel to touch clear water in the flagged trough, and they still venerate the well even though the annual gathering has vanished for more than a century. The stone channel carries the water into a field, suggesting the mound was never meant to be a dead ruin but a busy threshold between human desire and earthly change.
Rectangular stone-lined trough. Stone-built rectangular covering, roofed by lintels on inside, 'hipped' shape on outside. Water from well drained by stone-lined channel dug into field. Still venerated. (Roberts, 1988). Myler (1998, 25) records 'from the outside it appears as a stone built mound of 4 ft. in height. There is a passage cut into the sloping ground to the south-east, 6 yards long, which leads into a small chamber within which is the flagged well, 2.5ft by 1.5ft. The roof of the chamber is lintelled and stone built'. Myler further notes that the well was 'known locally as Tobar Partalam and that 'there used to be an annual gathering at this well but such an event has not taken place for well over 100 years' and 'the well is now neglected and overgrown'.
The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Cork. Volume 1: West Cork' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1992). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research.
Date of upload/revision: 24 January 2013
Images provided by and copyright of Amanda Clarke 2016-2022 https://holywellscorkandkerry.com/
Linked to St Bartholomew, one of the twelve apostles, the well is traditionally associated with healing and protection. In folklore, such wells were often visited on the saint’s feast day (August 24) for the cure of skin ailments and general well-being.
The monument record does not grant public access. Check the route and ask the landowner before entering private land.
- What survives
- Recorded monument
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