Ritual site - holy well, Drumaville, Culdaff, Co. Donegal
Along the muddy foreshore near Carndonagh in County Donegal, three freshwater springs bubble up through circles of carefully placed stones.
Ritual site - holy well, Drumaville, Culdaff, Co. Donegal
Known locally as Cathal Dubh’s three boiling wells, these natural springs at Strabreagy have attracted pilgrims for generations, though the Atlantic tide covers them completely at high water. The site lies on the Black Rock in Drumaville townland, just off the road connecting Carndonagh to Malin.
The springs take their name from Cathal Dubh, a hermit whose stone cell can still be seen at Goorey, roughly two miles from Malin along the road to Lagg. Writing in 1936, the folklorist Ó Muirgheasa documented how people once performed a turus, a traditional pilgrimage circuit, at these wells despite their tidal submersion. The three springs, each defined by its own ring of stones, continue to bubble up through the mud and sand, creating an unusual sight where fresh water meets salt.
This ritual site represents one of many holy wells scattered across Donegal, where natural springs became focal points for religious devotion and folk tradition. The Archaeological Survey of County Donegal, compiled in 1983, formally recorded these springs alongside hundreds of other field monuments, ensuring that sites like Cathal Dubh’s wells remain documented even as the old pilgrimages fade from living memory.