Secrets of the City

Fifty Holy Wells #12

St Augustine’s Well, Galway City

So far in this series, we have visited some fairly remote wells. In my travels I have found wells on mountaintops, in woodlands, at the edges of unloved fields and hidden away down tiny lanes. St Augustine’s well - in Irish, Tobar Agaistín - is a departure, for two reasons. Firstly, it is a tidal well: it is situated on the shore of a sea lough, which covers it when the tide comes in. And secondly, far from being windswept and remote, the backdrop to the well looks like this:

As you drive in to Galway city from the east, you’ll find yourself passing along the shores of Lough Atalia, a tidal lough that forms part of Galway Bay. The shores of the lough these days are sprinkled with houses, flats, and jerrybuilt office buildings, though it still has enough windswept, mossy, boggy bits to feel properly Galwegian.

Passing along the road on a normal day you would have no idea that a holy well was hiding down a set of steps on the shores of the lough. You have to keep an eye out for the grey stone cross by the roadside. Find that, and walk down those steps to the water, and this is what you will find:

The muddy strand in this photo will be covered over with seawater when the tide is in, surrounding the well itself, and leaving only its curious hexagonal structure exposed, surrounded by the lapping waters of the bay. As you can see, I visited at low tide. Others obviously still do the same. The well was restored by the Galway Civic Trust to mark the turn of the millennium, and the coins in the water and rags on the tree are evidence of continued patronage.

This is only the second well in my series which is not dedicated to an Irish saint, and it is apparently one of three tidal wells in the city once dedicated to Augustine. This is the only one left. According to the records, there were actually once three separate wells at this site, the other two being dedicated to John the Baptist and the Virgin Mary. The others are gone today, but Tobar Agaistín has an ancient history and seems to have once been widely visited and venerated, especially for ailments of the eyes and ears.

Naturally, the well has miraculous healings to its credit, and one in particular, dating from the 1670s, remains well-known (sic.) A young boy on the verge of death was brought to the well as a last resort. Archaeologist Louise Nugent relates the story:

Having arrived at the well the boy was immersed in its waters and ‘having no fileing (feeling) thereof, and was brought upp was wrapped by Mary Burke into a wollin plaide’. The boy slept for a quarter of an hour before being woken by his mother who he promptly told off for having interrupted a vision he was having of ‘Our Lord Jesus Christ and his blessed mother and a multitude of brave winged brides’. The boy requested a cup of water from the well. He drank ‘three draughts in the name of the father and of the Sonne and the Holly Gost’. The boy then got up and walked about the well. He told his mother that in the vision, he had been advised to visit the well for nine days and to drink the water three times at each visit. The boy appears to have remained hail and hearty after the event and was cured of ‘the womiting disease, and dough eath and drinke ever since with a great apetit’.

So famous did this miracle become, that ‘a board of clergy and laity of the town’ was assembled to pass judgement on whether it was, in fact, properly miraculous. Various priests and assorted local bigwigs took depositions from witnesses, including the boy’s family, who were all insistent that a miracle had occurred. The board appeard to demur, suggesting instead, according to Nugent, that the miracle may have instead been ‘attributed to hydropathy, i.e. cure by cold water’.

This sort of thing is, of course, what we have come to expect from official bodies, even those staffed by priests. But never mind: the well knows its secrets, and it keeps them still today, as the tide moves in and out, a hidden haven in an ever-growing city. You can even still bathe in its waters if you have a strong constitution. Galway Bay is not for the fainthearted.