What it is
St Lughna’s Holy Well is a small spring on the Silver River Nature Walk in the Slieve Bloom foothills, restored in 1995 and named for St Lughna, an early churchman, not for the harvest festival of Lughnasa it is sometimes confused with. It is not a place you drive to and stand at; it is a stop on a walk. The well sits near the ruins of St Lugna’s monastery at Letterluna, which include a medieval parish church and the bank of a monastic enclosure, so the reward for the detour is the whole cluster, not the spring alone. Look for the face carved into the rock by the water, the most striking thing here.
The walk
Start at Cadamstown, from the car park in front of Dempsey’s pub, not from Kinnitty. The well lies on the Silver River Nature Walk, a 7km looped trail graded strenuous that follows the river through wooded banks. It is a proper hill walk with uneven, often muddy ground, so this suits walkers rather than casual strollers, and it is not wheelchair accessible. There are no toilets, café or visitor centre at the well, so carry water and a layer, and after rain wear boots that grip.
Why the site matters
The monastery once lay on the Slí Dhála, one of the five great ancient highways of Ireland; the stretch near Letterluna was known as the Munster Road. There is a longer thread too. The Cadamstown branch of the O’Carroll family, dispossessed in the 17th century, was granted land in Maryland, and it was from this line that Charles Carroll came, the only Catholic to sign the US Declaration of Independence. For a quiet well in the middle of Offaly, that is a long reach.
If you want to keep the older well customs, walk sunwise around the spring and leave the clooties tied to the trees undisturbed. Keep to the marked path: the surrounding land is farmed, so close gates behind you.
Practical details
- Parking: at Dempsey’s pub in Cadamstown, the trailhead for the loop. Spaces are limited, so arrive early on weekends and do not block the lane.
- Access: the well is reached on foot along the Silver River trail; there is no direct road to it.
- Facilities: none at the well. The nearest are in Cadamstown and Kinnitty.
- Signal: patchy in the valleys, so download or print the Slieve Bloom trail map before you set off.
Nearby in Offaly
The well pairs well with the bigger names in County Offaly. Clonmacnoise, the great monastic city on the Shannon, is the county’s headline site of round towers and high crosses. Lough Boora Discovery Park turns cutaway bog into a sculpture park with easy cycling. For a full day on the hills, the Slieve Bloom Way runs 84km through the same range the Silver River drains, and its higher ground gets a fraction of the crowds the Wicklow hills draw.