Some years ago, on Easter Sunday, I made it to the top of this mountain in County Sligo where Saint Patrick got rid of all the demons once and for all at the Holy Well located at its summit.
Today tour
buses in Ireland normally take visitors to well known places such as the Yeats
grave in County Sligo at Drumcliffe. They don’t look for the hidden Ireland.
The places where demons were dealt final blows by Saint Patrick.
One such
place is in County Sligo. A curious Sligo tourist might poke around on back roads with a detailed Ordinance Survey
Map and discover ancient and pre-historic places. A good County Sligo map
will show a gap in the Ox Mountains (Slieve Gamph) off the N 59 Sligo-Ballina
Road which begins at the turn off for Coolaney. It is marked with a sign.
The road
winds through the mountain gap past the Carraig-na-Seabhach
or Carrick-Na-Shee-og (rock of the young fairies), better known as the
Hawk’s Rock. This boulder is perched on top of a high hill on the left like a
dinosaur nest right outside the little Village of Coolaney, not to be confused
with Collooney, which is approximately six miles from Coolaney. The story goes
that a MacDonough chieftan gave dowry lands to his two daughters, Oonagh and
Annie. Oonagh set up her household in Collooney. Annie went to Coolaney.
Just a bit
down the road from the Hawk’s Rock, on top of another high hill, is Tubber
Tullaghan known as the Hawk’s Well.
The story
goes that Saint Patrick had undertaken to expel the annoying demons the monk
Jocelin had described seven centuries later from Ireland. Seven centuries had
been quite enough. The snakes in Ireland were involved in the round-up as well.
Patrick (no one has ever explained exactly how he did this) herded all the
snakes and demons in Ireland into Mayo and up the mountain known today as
Croagh Patrick. He then commanded them to jump off a cliff on the other side of
the mountain into the sea. (No matter that there was no sea located at the bottom of
Croagh Patrick.) They balked at this, so he took out a little consecrated bell
some angels had given him to scare away the demons that had recently harassed
him during a 40 day prayer and fasting retreat on top of this mountain.
The demons
could not bear to hear the tinkle of that holy bell. So he rang it again and
again until they screamed in a rage and flung themselves off the cliff. But the
demons were sneaky. Instead of diving into the sea as commanded, they dove
instead into a ravine known today as Demon’s Hollow and hid.
St. Patrick
was nobody’s fool. He followed them down the steep incline as far as he dared
and then hurled the bell into the ravine after them. All that bell tinkling
terrified the demons and they fled out of the ravine and then flung themselves
into the sea (several miles away) in a frenzy.
Except for
one. She was known as Caorthannach, the Fire-Spitter,
or, Kerhanagh. This she-demon who
was called the devil’s mother by some, took off running and Saint Patrick
pursued her on a mysterious horse that had appeared at the base of Croagh
Patrick.
The lady
demon poisoned all the wells she passed by so Patrick could not have any
drinking water. He was very thirsty sixty miles later when he arrived at a
steep hill outside of Coolaney in Tullaghan. He prayed for water and his horse
suddenly slipped on the rocks, throwing him to the ground.
Right where
he landed, pure water began trickling up between the rocks. He refreshed
himself and then hid to wait for a sign of the fire-spitting demon. This time,
the demon was caught unaware and Patrick managed to chase the loathsome
creature into the ocean a few miles away.
There was a
happy outcome! When she hit the sea, a swell was created and the water from the
ocean surged up into the new well even though it was miles away. Today it is
known that the water in the well does rise up and then go down again with no
logical explanation. There are said to be two trout living in this murky holy
well which you can only see if your heart is pure. It was labeled one of the
‘wonders of Ireland’ in a guide book written about 1185 by Gerald of Wales, of
the Norman invader Fitzgerald family.
As recently
as 100 years ago, ancient rites were still conducted at the Hawk’s Well by the
devout. The rituals were forbidden and labeled pagan (which they were, long
predating Saint Patrick) by Cardinal Cullen of Dublin in the late 19th
century.
You can
still see what appears to be part of a path up to the Hawk’s Well, but it is so
overgrown with thistles you are better off making your way straight up the
hill, even though weed covered rocks and cow pies are waiting to ambush you.
It’s a long way up, but once you are there, the view is indescribably
beautiful. There is a trace of a cashel left, and the Holy Well itself, almost
at the summit, with a small wooden cross marking it. There is no cup to drink
from it, but as the water looks like a death potion, only the fearless would
attempt it. Isolated and forlorn, it is hard to believe now that mobs of
fervent pilgrims once frequented it.
Directions: Take the Sligo-Ballina
Road, N. 59. Turn at sign to Coolaney. Go past the Hawk’s Rock (on your left)
Tullaghan is the next steep hill. Turn left at first road past rock. Then turn
left again at next road which is a dead end with a few houses. Park at end of
road near ruined stone house and make your way up the hill. You will find the
Well near the top. It is a hard, although not too steep, climb. Just very
overgrown with grass-covered, invisible holes deep enough to twist your ankle.
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