The Pass of Kiemaneigh

You may not know it but today is St Gobnait's Feast day! She's big in County Cork, especially the Gaeltacht region of Ballyvourney where the day is celebrated with a pilgrimage to her shrine - and yes there are holy wells too! The journey inland was amazing - I kept on thinking turn back, but I didn't and I'm glad.The snow was coming down quite thickly at the site but many people were making the rounds and taking the water, brollies out.  I also popped into the church to see the 13th century statue of the saint which is only brought out on this day. There is a complicated ceremony required- you buy ribbons that have been cut exactly to the length of the statue then you wind them around the statue lengthwise then up and under. I copied what the strapping teenage lad in front of me did. You then take the ribbons home and they will ensure lasting good health for the year!
Then I went off to pay my respect to St Abban who's shrine lies about half a mile away in the woods. You have to traverse a ford, squelch through two fields and then go through a sodden wood to find him. Oddly he had received no other visitors. A truly magical place and I was checking whether his bones were still there and I was relieved and amazed to find they are- snug in a tupperware box and that's all I'm saying. (These wells will make up two of my five for the Cork section of the Holy Wells of Ireland book due out at some point);

Coming home the sun was shining. Compare and contrast the same view going through the Pass of Keimaneigh. I always wonder what it would be like to live in that little mauve farm.