St. Patrick's Well (9/17)

[Chris]

A couple days ago we made a quick excursion to a local site, St. Patrick's Well, only about 10 minutes from our place.  It's a natural spring, or holy well, that marks one of the areas where St. Patrick baptized people around 1600 years ago.  We were delighted to meet David, who is the local elderly caretaker who stops by to greet people (we learned that he bikes in every day from across town).  Since we were the only ones there when he showed up, we got to hear his stories for a good 30 minutes.

The water is believed to have healing powers, so we all drank from the spring (many locals bring gallon jugs to collect it) and we did the "pilgrimage" out to the cross in the middle of the pond, where we walked thrice around clockwise.  There are enough pilgrims that the algae doesn't grow along the path.  [update 48 hours later: drinking the water may not have been the wisest decision]

This well, one of the largest spring wells in Ireland, has been a gathering point for humans for over 8000 years, long before the Christian era. 

Side note, this was day 7 of our visit, and the first not to have any rain (or any that we noticed on our excursion anyway). 

Textures

The walk down

St. Patrick

The spring/well

The church onsite, built about 500 years ago.

The legend, David, telling us about this casket from 1623.

The inside of the church.  The roof was burned down by Oliver Cromwell, "who did more damage to Ireland in 8 years than England has done in all of history," according to David.  Wikipedia confirms that 20% of the Irish population died during this decade.

Textures

Making the pilgrimage around the cross.  The painful rocks underfoot are part of the sacrifice.

Kate drinking the healing water from the well

Filling bottles

Saying goodbye

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