Dublin Core
Title
Our Lady's well
Description of Well Item Type Metadata
1 Name of well and saint
Lady's Well dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary
2 Townland, County, GPS
Beach, Cork
51°40'12.1"N 9°29'24.0"W
51°40'12.1"N 9°29'24.0"W
3 Physical description of well and its surroundings
The well is housed beneath an arched stone wellhouse. A mug is near it so that those can drink from the shallow waters. Nearby is a Mass Rock where mass is still held on the 15th of August. To get to the well and Mass Rock you have to walk through a field that overlooks Bantry Bay, enter through a gate painted silver and pass a statue of Mary which overlooks the site.
4 Cure
lameness
"There is healing associated with the well. A story tells of how a young girl from Drimoleague was brought here in a chair, unable to walk. She saw the eel and was reputedly cured, no longer needing the chair for her return journey home. When the statue to the BVM was put up in 1952, some of the money received towards the cost, came from the granddaughter of the girl who was said to have been cured." (https://holywellsofcork.com/2016/02/19/ladys-well-sheeps-head/ by Amanda Clarke)
"There is healing associated with the well. A story tells of how a young girl from Drimoleague was brought here in a chair, unable to walk. She saw the eel and was reputedly cured, no longer needing the chair for her return journey home. When the statue to the BVM was put up in 1952, some of the money received towards the cost, came from the granddaughter of the girl who was said to have been cured." (https://holywellsofcork.com/2016/02/19/ladys-well-sheeps-head/ by Amanda Clarke)
5 Pattern day
August 15th
6 Offerings
There are statues of Saints all down the hillside and Amanda Clark says that there are many offerings left (https://holywellsofcork.com/2016/02/19/ladys-well-sheeps-head/ by Amanda Clark)
7 Prayer rounds and stations
"The rounds were said here on the 15th August, the Feast of the Assumption, and Johnny Crowley, a local historian, explains what you had to do:
‘Tis a very devout place. and there have been healings attached to it. The rounds is done here on the 15th August. The rounds then consisted of 15 decades of the Rosary, going up one side of the path by the altar and down and round the other. The tradition was to take 15 small pebbles and as you passed the well you dropped one in. You know you had the 15 decades finished when you dropped the last pebble in the well. When you threw in the 15th stone and said your Hail Holy Queen, if an eel that was in the well jumped up in the water, the main part of your wish would be given…'
(Sheep’s Head Way booklet)" (https://holywellsofcork.com/2016/02/19/ladys-well-sheeps-head/ by Amanda Clarke)
‘Tis a very devout place. and there have been healings attached to it. The rounds is done here on the 15th August. The rounds then consisted of 15 decades of the Rosary, going up one side of the path by the altar and down and round the other. The tradition was to take 15 small pebbles and as you passed the well you dropped one in. You know you had the 15 decades finished when you dropped the last pebble in the well. When you threw in the 15th stone and said your Hail Holy Queen, if an eel that was in the well jumped up in the water, the main part of your wish would be given…'
(Sheep’s Head Way booklet)" (https://holywellsofcork.com/2016/02/19/ladys-well-sheeps-head/ by Amanda Clarke)
9 Publications
https://holywellsofcork.com/2016/02/19/ladys-well-sheeps-head/ by Amanda Clarke
Photograph by Amanda Clark
Photograph by Amanda Clark