Holy Wells

A holy well or sacred spring is a body of water revered either in a Christian or pagan context, sometimes both.

Ireland is home to more than 3,000 holy wells, each attached to their own saints, legends, and healing properties.

These holy wells have been sites of worship and prayer for centuries and are still visited today by those who seek the miraculous cures offered by the waters.

It was believed that drinking from these holy waters or bathing in them would bestow the power of the Otherworld in the form of poetic inspiration, wisdom, or healing.

Supernatural fish, especially salmon or trout, are still said to appear in a well’s depths to those seeking omens for the future. The fish motif may derive from a belief that well goddesses could take the form of a fish. Salmon were also often credited with being bearers of ‘iomas’, the ‘light that illumines’, meaning the insight and wisdom that comes from a supernatural encounter, rather than the knowledge acquired through conventional study.