ST BRIGID'S HOLY WELL
Re-opened and restored in 1990, the Holy Well has been acclaimed by many visitors to have been the showpiece of the overall restoration programme at Drum. A white marble motif of St Brigid’s Cross is laid on the surrounding floor of the well. A life-size statue of St Brigid was introduced in 2010, with an over-head raised pediment constructed on the surrounding wall. Since the restoration was completed in 1991 a Rosary Procession takes place each year from the Well before the Celebration of the Eucharist. This solemn expression of faith in Drum replicates the more than one hundred year old known tradition of a station being held at St Brigid’s Well, at which time its waters were reputed to contain healing powers for various skin diseases. In recent years two known cures have been attributed to people who made three separate visits to the well and having in each case used the water while praying to St Brigid for a deliverance from their affliction. In recent times many people are taking water from the Well especially to take to their home wherever a family member is suffering from ill health.
FORMER DRUM MONASTIC SITE
Standing lordly on a high rise embankment within the Monastic enclosure this now magnificently restored ruins of the Romanesque Abbey captures the immediate attention of visitors. Known to locals as “The Monastery”, the Abbey appears to have been the place of worship for a Community of Patrician Monks whose living quarters (still extant) are located to the rear of the Abbey building. The Monastic site also contains the ruins of a Medieval Church and the remains of at least four small buildings believed to have been one-time solitary penitent places of prayer, in addition to three hundred and fifty memorials to the dead. The oldest memorial in the Abbey ruins is inscribed in Latin to Fr Hugh Thomas Gaffey who was a Parish Priest holding the Degree of Doctor of Divinity. He died in February 1703 just one year before the imposition of the Penal Laws in Ireland. On the Ordnance Survey Maps of 1837 and 1916 the former monastery boundary or tearmon shows an almost complete circle encompassing five acres of land which gives one reason to believe that a fairly large settlement either Pagan or Christian existed here at an early period. Following the restoration of the Medieval Church ruins, a limestone altar was erected on its original location. This church was vacated in 1874 when a new Church also dedicated to St Brigid was constructed on a nearby site. The complete restoration of the Monastic Site was carried out by a voluntary work group organised by Drum Heritage Committee in 1987-1989. Since the restoration was completed an Annual Concelebrated Open –Air Mass is held on the site during the month of June each year.
Source : drumheritage.ie