A date with a man to see an eel

Not an offer you could refuse really. An adventure! It all started when I was browsing through the Schools Folklore Collection, as you do, and I came across a well near Skibbereen not listed in the Archaeological Inventory. Dedicated to St Peter and St Paul it's special feature was two blessed eels which lived within and were fed on bread on the annual feast day - 29 June in case you were wondering.
I could find out nothing more so contacted Skibbereen Heritage Centre just before Christmas. No response ... and then out of the blue, a phonecall.  The manager had tracked down a man who knew all about it and would be prepared to take me there, was I still interested! Wellies packed, as instructed, I set off to meet P today.
Never in a million  years would I have found this well on my own!  We traversed boggy pasture, climbed over barbed wire strewn ditches, then hacked our way through a copse, eventually skidding down to the well - see extra. Apparently in P's father's time hundreds of people came here to say the rosary, pray for cures and hope to see the eels - only then would a cure occur. P himself remembered coming here ever year as a small boy, and on sundays but he never saw the eels. Astonishing that somewhere so potent could now be so forgotten. P reckoned no-one had been here for a good 20 years. The well itself was very natural (!) but to my delight a couple of clooties (rags) still festooned a branch, now seriously mossy and discoloured. Once rags were left in the whitethorns - either as a prayer or wish, or as a hope that as the rag decayed so would any illness being suffered. This is how my image of the clootie turned out on its own. I rather like it! P was a delightful fellow explorer - we covered everything from wells to Trump to cats to Brexit to Charles Lindbergh to the two lads who did Skib proud in the Olympics!

And a reminder - next month is of course INTERNATIONAL HOLY WELL MONTH. Last year I think we managed to visit 82 wells here, there and everywhere. I'm sure we can do as well again. You may not think there is a holy well near you but there will be!