Drinking Water

Struell Wells is hidden away in a remote corner of County Down. It’s not that easy to get to. You need to take a very narrow country lane leading from the main Downpatrick road along a steep valley. Eventually you come to a walled greensward surrounded by fields and woods where the wells are situated. There is a rough parking area on the opposite side of the road, and that’s it. No houses, no ice cream kiosks, no souvenir shops.

The site is fed by an underground stream which surfaces in two separate stone-covered wells and a male and female bathhouse. It has been a centre for pilgrimage for many hundreds of years; the whole of this area has strong connections to St Patrick who, according to legend, used to come here to take the waters. There is conjecture that the wells date right back to pagan, pre-Christian times, and this wouldn’t surprise me. The place has a sense of timelessness, difficult to describe but practically tangible. It was almost disconcertingly peaceful and quiet with nothing to be heard but the sounds of birdsong and running water.



There were just two other visitors when we arrived, both of them women. My friend C sat on a stone bench absorbing the atmosphere while I wandered around, taking the occasional photograph, pleased to be there but restless, drifting from the ruined church to the drinking well and on to the eye well – for eye problems as the name suggests.

I went into the female bathhouse, now open to the sky, where the stream is channelled through an opening about one third of the way up one of the mossy stone walls, drops down to a stone gulley on the floor and exits under the opposite wall.

Suddenly I knew what I wanted to do. I placed the camera well to one side then leaned forward into the stream, cupped my hands and doused myself with the water several times from top to toe.

I needed to participate. When fate hands you a trip to a healing well, or anything else, it is gracious to accept with thanks what is on offer. And who doesn’t need healing to some degree? Goodness knows I take what I can get, particularly at the moment.

Accustomed to sanitised mineral-water-in-bottles-with-a-label but feeling it was important to honour the tradition, I looked around for some kind of notice indicating whether the water was safe to drink. Nothing. I scooped up some more water and took the risk. It tasted good. Clear and cold.

After a few minutes I went outside to rejoin C. The two women had gone and their place had been taken by four local teenagers who were kicking a red football around in a corner of the grassy area – there was no escaping World Cup fever even here….

I found out later that the water at the wells is very sadly no longer considered safe for human consumption. I had no ill effects but rather a sense of having received - irrespective of outcome - an unlooked-for gift, unexpectedly bestowed.

The Summer Solstice used to be the occasion for one of the main yearly festivals at the wells, when crowds would come on pilgrimage. We were there on 17th June, just three days early.
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1. Photos from the top: Water entering the female bathhouse: the stone cover of the drinking well: entrance to the male bathhouse.
2. These sites provide further information on Struell Wells.
3. Details of St Patrick's connection with County Down, including a paragraph on Struell Wells.
4. Sites providing general information on holy wells in Ireland.