There is a place on the shore of Scattery Island, where, according to
the most ancient tradition, a sacred well once existed, with miraculous
curative powers. But no one could ever discover the place, for at high
water the sea covered every point up to the edge of the land, and the
shifting sand made all efforts to find the locality of the well vain
and fruitless.
But one day a young man who was lame in both legs from the effects of a
fall, and much disabled in consequence, was going along the shore with
some companions, when he suddenly sank up to his waist in the sand.
With much difficulty, and after a long while, his comrades managed to
haul him up, when to their amazement they found that his legs were now
quite straight, and he stood up before them four inches taller than
before he sank down into the sand.
So at once they knew that the sacred well must have worked the cure,
and they dug and dug and cleared away the sand, till at last they came
on some ancient steps, and down below lay the well, clear and fresh,
and untouched by the salt of the sea, the holy well of St. Seenan, that
their fathers and forefathers had vainly looked for.
Now there was great rejoicing in the country when the news spread; and
all the people from far and near who had pains and ailments rushed off
to the well and drank of the waters and poured libations of it over
their persons, wherever the pain or the disease lay, and in a short
time wonderful cures were effected. So next day still greater crowds
arrived to try their good luck. But when they came to the place, not a
vestige of the well could be found. The sand and the sea had covered
all, and from that day to this the holy well of St. Seenan has never
been seen by mortal eyes.