Lady's Well

Zoomed into Bantry to do a few chores and had a romantic assignation with himself on a bench in the square where we ate some delicious mixed salads  in front of the market stall selling patriotic and rebel memorabilia, including roistering music.  
Sped home via a holy well!!  It has to be done!!!  I've blipped this beforebut it is a remarkable site and worth many visits. It's nestled into a ridge, high, over-looking Bantry Bay. It consists of an old mass rock used as an altar when Catholicism was forbidden. A story goes that the priest was illegally conducting mass to his outdoor congregation when a group of soldiers  arrived. A figure in a blue cloak was spotted and the cloak enveloped the area allowing the priest to escape! A statue of Our lady was erected on the very spot in 1952.  The hill side is dotted with little figurines and the whole place has a strange aura. You can see more images  here if you're interested. I was interested to see that in most statues Mary is standing on a snake.  

The blessed well is next to the mass rock and I suspect even older.  It's beautifully made with  a curved wall of hammered in pebbles and a sturdily  constructed  wellhead. Traditionally the Rounds are said here on the 15th of August when 15 Decades of the Rosary are said and each time you pass the well you throw in a pebble. If, when you throw in your 15th pebble, you spot the eel who lives in the well, then all your wishes will come true! The well is also reputed to have healing properties.  Another story concerns a young girl who was paralysed and brought to the well in a chair. She spotted the eel and went home on two feet!  
A little mug is left at the side of the well should you fancy partaking of the water, but unfortunately today it looks very stagnant and was quite smelly  so I wasn't tempted. Nor did I see any eels.
Have a good weekend everyone.