ST
DECLAN’S WELL & HERMITAGE – ARDMORE
Seaside Monastery Coast Cliff Path
Legend holds that St Declan came to southeast shores of Ireland and
Christianized the area of surrounding modern Waterford County in the
5th Century A.D. before the rise of St Patrick. There is some dispute
as to the dates of St Declan, but in the region of the south his primacy
is assured. On the hills and coast of the fishing village of Ardmore,
a few miles from the historic harbor of Youghal where the cliffs look
out to where the Irish Sea meets the Atlantic, the sites of St Declan
make for a journey back to the very earliest days of Christianity in
Ireland.
Cathedral and Round Tower
On a hill
just south of the village stands the ancient Cathedral of Ardmore
with the famed
Round Tower, and St Declan’s Oratory.
The Oratory is a small church from the 8th Century with later reconstructions
where St Declan was once said to be buried, but now long removed. The
Cathedral ruin is more the size of an abbey church from the 11th and
12th Century. On an outer wall can be found some stone carvings from
an earlier 9th-century church, including one of the earliest images
of a harp in Ireland, and images of the story of Adam and Eve.
Inside
the Cathedal ruin are two of the few remaining Ogham Stones, stone
cuniform inscription marker, the earliest known form of Irish Gaelic
writing,
consisting of lines in a alphabet called “trees”. The
writing is generally believed to be of proper names, perhaps marking
land ownership,
though
otherswise indecipherable. The 12th Century Round Tower, one of several
found in early Irish religious settlements like Glendalough in Wicklow
to the north. The 30 meters (97 feet) high tower, with four levels
inside
its stone walls tapering to a pointed roof, stands amidst the hillside
cemetery of ancient and more recent gravestones next
to the cathedral.
The purpose of the Round Tower was to serve as a bell and watch tower,
as well as refuge for the monks with safe keeping of their books
and relics in case of attack.
St Declan’s Well and Hermitage Church
On
the coastal path along the jutting cliff shore, just past the noted
Cliff
House Hotel and Restaurant
(see Cliff
House Ardmore),
follow a walking path along the cliff edge to St Declan’s Well
and Hermitage Church. St Declan, late in his life reputedly sought
the the peaceful solace of a hermitage
and found it near a well spring on the cliff from a point where he
could see across to the distnt Welsh coast.
There
is no recognized date for the building of the Hermitage Church, the
western end is the earlier construction, where the eastern end
standing wall is probably 13th and 14th Century on the spot where the
monk lived in his hovel. St Declan's Holy Well is a place of popular
religious devotion and pilgrimage. The well is believed to have curative
powers
dates
and from the 5th Century time of St Declan. The devotion associated
with St Declan is the Feast Day of St Declan, the 24th of July, commonly
called Pattern Day - coming from the Irish work Patrun meaning Patron
as in Patron Saint. St Declan's Well and Oratory draw several hundreds
on devotional celebrants in late July, on Pattern Sunday, with a mass
sometimes at midnight on the 23rd of July.
The ceremonial
pilgrim's devotion of "doing the rounds" is
to make the sign of the cross with the water from the Holy well, say
the Lord's Prayer and Hail Mary, then walk around the ruins of the
Hermitage Church clockwise. After three rounds while saying the rosary,
the pilgrim traces the sign of the cross underneath the ancient stone
cross at the old east altar. Then after praying, one can drink the
curative water from the well.
Coastal Path – Monastery Walk
Follow
the coastal pathway along the edge of the cliff, called the Monastery
Walk, for
its journey leading along the sea edge from St
Declan’s Well and Hermitage back to the Cathedral and Tower.
The full walk takes about an hour or a bit less with stunning views
of the wild sea, below the sharply escaped cliffs, walking right along
the cliff with undisturbed green fields to the cliff edge, occasionally
lined with berry brambles.
Along the
walk you’ll find the incongruous wreck of the Samson,
a crane barge which grounded on the rocky point of Ram Head in a storm
in 1987 while being towed from Liverpool to Malta. The crane is now
a popular scuba diving sport. A bit farther is the concrete Lookout
Post built in 1940 as guard watch in WWII for invading axis ships and
bombers. And the “Castle”, really a concrete bunker built
at the same time as the lookout, now mostly a refuge for sea birds. Down along
the shore can be found St Declan’s Stone, which legend
says floated across the waters from Wales following Declan's visit
there where St David established his monastery to the Decries people
a century later (see St
David’s Bishop’s Palace). Beneath
the two points of the large stone where it is supported on others is
a small hollow, through which devotees of St Declan pull themselves
in prayer on Pattern Day for spiritual benefit.
St Declan’s Way - Walking Trail
For a long distance hike for the serious walker, a marked path called St Declan’s Way, begins at the Round Tower cemetery and leads to Cashel near Tipperary where the Rock of Cashel is one of the most spectacular religious ruins in Ireland (see Rock of Cashel). All of the St Declan sites at Ardmore are free to visit and cliff walk well worth the view, if the weather is fair. © Bargain Travel Europe
Find best hotel and travel deals in Waterford on TripAdvisor
Web
Info
Discover
Ireland
These articles are copyrighted and the sole property of Bargain Travel Europe and WLPV, LLC. and may not be copied or reprinted without permission.
SEE ALSO:
GLENDALOUGH – ST
KEVIN'S RUINS - WICKLOW
