St Brigid's Well - Kilbranish

transcribed at

St Brigid's Well - Kilbranish  [duchas:5005689]

7
St. Brigid's Well, Kilbranish

About three miles from the village of Bunclody, there is a holy well called after the great Saint Brigid.  The well springs up through the heart of the tree, it is about three feet from the ground.  I have not heard it said that any cures have been effected at this well.  It has been told by some old people in the district that there was a flourishing monastery there at one time, and in the Graveyard close by they say that there are priests buried. There is nothing to indicate where those priests were buried.  There are some headstones here and there marking graves but there is no writing of any sort on those headstones and some of them have sunk completely into the ground while the ones that can be seen are only about one foot above the ground.  It must be one of the oldest graveyards in Ireland.
There was once a beautiful avenue about a quarter of a mile long leading to the monastery and part of it can be seen to this day from what is now called Scratto Lane, this lane may have been a road at that time.

St Brigid's Well - Kilbranish  [duchas:5005690]

8
There is now nothing to show where the monastery stood only you can notice the foundation marks in the ground.
The tree in which the well is, although withered has withstood all the wind and storms for centuries past, although it stands in wet boggy ground.  The well never went dry even in the hottest summer and the bog never went dry either.  The man whose land it is on although a Protestant does not mind people going to see the well, he would even bring you to it, as there is no other way to get into it. you have to cross a ditch.
There is a story told that old Mr. Joseph Rothwell had one cow which used to lick a certain tree and ate no grass at all only lick this tree every day, so they decided to cut it down, when they cut it down the cow ceased to give milk and died. Then on another occasion they started to draw stones from the monastery and the horses ran away and turned the car and broke the driver's legs.
The holy well and monastery or Chapel, whichever it may have been is to be found on the Wexford-Carlow border, on the land of a Protestant farmer named Mr Rothwell nestling under the foot of Mount Leinster in the beautiful valley of Kilbranish in the Parish of Clonegal, in the Diocese of Kildare and Leighlin