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'''St Gobnait's well''' is the usual name given to a religious complex built on the site of a 6th or 7th century [[nunnery]]<ref name="crsbi" /> near [[Ballyvourney]], [[County Cork]], Ireland. Consisting of a [[holy well]], two churches and a graveyard, its origins date to the [[Middle Ages|medieval]] period. The site is associated with the 8th century saint [[Gobnait]], and today it is a place of veneration and pilgrimage, where people walk around the site reciting the [[rosary]] (an act known locally as "doing the rounds in Ballyvourney", Irish: ''Turas Ghobnatan'')<ref>"[https://nuacht1.com/alt/97401/ Naomh Gobnait i saol na muintire]". [[RTÉ]]. Retrieved 16 January 2024</ref> to pray for the dying and dead, with the 11th of February (Gobnait’s [[feast day]]), and [[Whitsunday|Whit Sunday]] being the two central date of gathering.<ref name="z138">Zucchelli (2007), p. 138</ref>
 
[[Gobnait]] was an 7th or 8th century Irish saint, believed to have lived locally, and known as the patron saint of [[beekeeper]]s after she sent a swarm of bees to chase away cattle rustlers.<ref>Whitty (2020)</ref> The site consists of a well and 1951 statue of Gobnait, with is separated by a road from a graveyard containing a late medieval Catholic Church (known as St Gobnait’s Church, now in ruins)<ref name="crsbi">"[https://www.crsbi.ac.uk/view-item?key=WXsiUCI6eyJTZXR0bGVtZW50IjoiUnVpbmVkIGNodXJjaCJ9LCJGIjoiZXlKMElqcGJObDE5In0&pg=6#yqRGYxrmE9MAAAGNFIlyAA/13734 St Gobnait, Ballyvourney, Cork]". Corpus of Romanesque Sculpture in Britain and Ireland, [[British Academy]]. Retrieved 16 January 2024</ref> and a more recent Protestant church, both of which are disused. The site is a popular location for rites of the [[rosary]], having a well defined circular path for them to walk in prayer, either in remembrance of the dead, or to ask Gobnait to aid the dying.
 
==Background==
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==Description==
[[File:Statue of St Gobnait 1 (cropped).jpg|thumb|left|Detail of [[Seamus Murphy]]'s statue]]
The site consists of a [[holy well]] associated with [[Gobnait]], and a modern graveyard supposedly built around Gobnait's burial mound. The graveyard is active today with most gravestones dated from the early 20th century to the present, and appears as overcrowded, with many of the graves huddled close together. It is built on the grounds of a medieval [[Protestant]] church and the ruins of an older [[Catholic]] church known as St Gobnait's [[Abbey]].<ref name="thepaper">O'Suliivan, Marc."[https://www.irishexaminer.com/lifestyle/artsandculture/arid-40353905.html Cork In 50 Artworks, No 16: Statue of St Gobnait at Ballyvourney, by Séamus Murphy]". ''[[Irish Examiner]]'', 9 August 2021. Retrieved 16 January 2024</ref>
 
The well is marked by a life-sized [[limestone]] statue of Saint Gobnait, commission locals from the Irish sculptor [[Seamus Murphy]], and completed in 1951, and unvelied that year on [[Whit Sunday]] (3 May ) of that year.<ref name="thepaper" /><ref>"[https://www.dib.ie/biography/gobnait-a3502 Gobna(i)t]". [[Dictionary of Irish Biography]] and the [[Royal Irish Academy]]. Retrieved 16 January 2024</ref><ref>"[https://arts.mtu.ie/seamusmurphylecturetheatre Seamus Murphy 1907-1975 Sculptor]". [[Munster Technological University]]. Retrieved 16 January 2024</ref> Murphy was one of the best known Irish sculptors as the time, and his design is renowned for its "simplicity and beauty".<ref name="thepaper" /> Gobnait is shown standing on a pedestal, under which is a [[beehive]]. The sides of the pedestal are lined with carvings of bees and [[stag]]s, reflecting her legend, while a set of independent [[Rosary#Rosary beads|rosary beads]] are hung from her neck.<ref name="thepaper" />
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