ST CATHERINE’S WELL TODAY (1955)

The Holy Well of St Catherine, situated on the side of a conical hill on which stands the ruins of Kit’s Castle, once the residence of the bishops of Raphoe, is still a place of daily pilgrimage.  The sparkling water gushes from the limestone rock, and forms a pool which, overflowing, trickles down the hillside to the sea.  There, on November 25^th – St Catherine’s Day – the people of Killybegs and neighbouring parishes come from dawn to midnight in a constant stream, to pray.  They climb the hill, and move reverently round the well, deisealach, doing the turas, rosary in hand.  They sip the water that was blessed by some holy men in homage to St Catherine perhaps fourteen centuries ago.

(Written by Charlie Conaghan, in the Donegal Democrat, 20 February 1955)