Completely the wrong direction!

A great day out with my pal Hannah - four wells on the agenda in the  direction of Rosscarbery. Bright and breezy, we sallied forth on the trail of the wonderfully named St Fachtna. The first well proved very elusive and was described as being in a niche in the walls of the abbey graveyard. We arrived in said graveyard, wandered around maps in hand and nothing was to be seen. We enlisted the help of the graveyard handyman/gravedigger who was delighted to help us out, having first ascertained who we were were and where we came from (there were of course connections, he knew Hannah's brother). I spotted a likely looking rock with a possible basin at the foot. Would I get my spade and start digging inquired Derry. Err, okay. Spade got he enthusiastically started digging away - I was a little concerned as to what might come up! First thing uncovered looked promising, a slab of limestone with an engraved cross on it. We got very excited but no the hole just kept on going and no sign of any well. We left Derry to it and decided to wander outside the walls. No sign of anything - we asked two more likely looking chaps, no they were from Blarney and then there it was - not terribly prepossessing but indeed in a niche in the wall.
We needed lunch after that - excellent sandwiches outside - then two more wells dedicated to St Fachtna were bagged, both rather plain and forlorn and one at the side of the road by the convent where Hannah used to go to school. The convent was now empty so we had to have a little mooch around there and a reminisce. It was vast and had its own farm attached.

The final well, dedicated to St Bridget, looked pretty challenging just from the map. I drove, Hannah instructed and the roads got smaller and smaller and more fuchsia-filled. We parked where we thought looked right and headed off down this track. It was stunning everywhere but we ended up on a  proper road which was definitely not on the map and the sea seemed to be on the wrong side! We had to flag down a motorist to just ask where we were - nowhere near where we thought we were as it turned out. We returned to the car, a good mile or so, and then inquired at another cottage - what a view they had. The father was sent for. He had no idea where the well was but suggested we tried the opposite direction. We did. This time by car and the roads got even smaller until we had to disembark and go on foot down a leafy boreen. A telltale stile in the wall and a lot of bogginess below looked hopeful. Ducking under barbed wire,  fighting off the nettles we finally arrived at our destination!  See extra for the full excitement. I've actually done a collage of the other wells - plus St Fachtna himself. The other extra if the view out over the valley towards Coppinger's Court, a huge, derelict fortified house. So much to explore!