Rambling around Dunmanway

A beautiful day. Himself wanted to do work on a book he's doing of his sketches so I went off to Dunmanway with an urge to see how two wells dedicated to St Finbarr were doing - as you will of course remember, yesterday was St Finbarr's feast day (He's big in Cork). Both had been severely neglected last time I visited and I have been pondering the potentially fraught issue of well restoration - should you or shouldn't you?  
The area around the first well visited had been dramatically cleared. I suspect this was just done by a chap with a strimmer. It looks a bit stark but you can clearly see the well, and the path leading to an odd little mound, a children's burial spot. Everything had been recently whitewashed and it looked still used. The second well had been in a terrible state when I visited it before, literally full of stagnant nappies. It was sited in the most beautiful glen, densely forested but the whole area looked like it was used for a dumping ground - there was a burnt out car, bags of rubbish, an old bike. What was most shocking today was that the glen had been decimated, literally hundreds of trees toppled and felled. It looked as though the weather had caused most damage and then dangerous trees had been cut down - all left in dispiriting jumble. The well was at the side of the road - a hand written sign tucked among the foliage. It was covered in weeds and I (carefully) cut back the 
brambles and bracken and pulled out some of the creeping buttercup. There's a before and after pic.This takes you to the should you/shouldnt you. Wells are technically protected monuments but in practice very few are. Archaeologists get very hot under the collar if a local person/group tries to restore one without proper advice - correctly, but so many wells are disappearing isn't it better that someone tries to save it rather allow it to vanish completely? Ideally there should be a well restorers handbook as there is now for graveyards in County Cork. The subject of my next blog I think. Discuss.
I then had a ramble around Dunmanway which is a very odd place but full of some rather marvellous old buildings. FitzGeralds is my very favourite with its fancy details and it has Brid's hair salon next door. I also like the exuberance of the Arches Bar but in the end this little trio won. Can any Irish speakers amongst us tell me what Feoil don Lion Ti translates as - the lion's meat house????

Rambling boys of pleasure - just because