St. Buonia's Well

St. Buonia's Well/ Tobar Buaine: This extensive site is located on a fairly steep, S facing slope of Knocknaskereighta mountain, towards the head of a broad valley which is locally known as ‘The Glen’. It affords excellent views to St Finan’s Bay and the Skelligs at W. The site is associated with St Buonia (Beoanigh), who is locally reputed to have been a sister of St Patrick. It has also been suggested that the site was founded by St Brendan or by St Beoanus, his disciple (O’Donoghue 1893, 280-3). Permission to survey the site was refused, and the following description is based on summary notes and the accounts published of it by Lynch (1902a) and Henry (1957).

The principal components of the site are located on two stone revetted terraces which extend roughly E-W along the hill-slope. The upper terrace (KE088-027017-) measures c. 13m N-S x c. 50m E-W; it is delimited at N and at both ends by apparently modern field boundaries. On the downslope S side it is revetted by coursed drystone masonry which overlies a series of upright slabs, some of which now incline outwardly. The revetment is best preserved at W, where it is up to 1.7m high and is coped with a series of flat slabs. One of these features a shallow, rectangular depression. The terrace is reached from S by a short flight of well-laid steps, .7m wide. Towards its W end is an oratory, a leacht, a gable-shrine, a cross-slab and a stone cross. The lower terrace (KE088-027018-) measures c. 24m N-S x c. 70m E-W and is delimited at E and W by continuations of the boundaries of the upper terrace. It is revetted at S by largely collapsed stone facing. Two parallel rows of upright slabs, 1.2m in average height, occur 3m apart just W of the present limits of the terrace; Henry interpreted these as the remains of an entrance (1957, 101). Located on the terrace are two circular huts (1, 2) and the foundations of two rectangular buildings.

St Buonia's Well (KE088-027004-): This lintelled well, open to S, is surmounted by a low cairn of stones and pebbles. Standing on its W side is a stone cross, 0.65m high, which has a diagonally disposed cross incised on its W face. On its E side is a recumbent rectangular slab, 0.92m x 0.5m, on the upper surface of which is an incised human figure with its hands clasped together. The slab is inscribed:

SAINT …. E PRAY FOR HER THAT ERECTED THIS

Above the inscription are two stylized angels. The slab appears to be of eighteenth-century date, and features a number of scored crosses on its surface. Rounds were formerly performed at the well (OSNB Killemlagh, 52).

Holy well described by Lynch (1902, 46) as follows; 'St. Buonia's Well is a clear mountain spring, around which the pious peasants have raised a large cairn of pebbles, the countless record of the rounds which have been paid there for ages. Beside the well lies a broken slab of a comparatively recent period, with a figure incised upon it, and the inscription, in Roman letters - "Saint [name broken away] Pray for her who erected this." A thank offering made by some pious suppliant, I presume; but, strange to relate, there is no local knowledge of the history of the memorial or the name of its founder. level with the present ground-line. This is shown in the photograph. The religious observance at the well is not confined to any festival but generally made on Fridays, Saturdays, or Sundays. It consists of making nine rounds and the recitation of the rosary, each round finishing at the priest's grave. The sign of the cross is scored on a gallaun beside it or on the end stone of the grave, and a votive offering, a hair-pin, button, or generally the tassel from the woollen shawls, worn by all the peasantry in Kerry, is passed through the hole in the end stone of the grave. This holed-stone is a strange survival of the holed-stones so often found in the ends of dolmens. Father Arthur Murphy, the parish priest, to whom I am much indebted for imparting to me his knowledge of the traditions and folk-lore of the district, informs me that the people believe St. Buonia to have been a holy nun. This, too, would appear to have been the opinion of the artist who rudely carved the female face on the memorial stone at the well. In the "Martyrology of Donegal," Beoin, Virgin, is commemorated on February 1st'.