Ritual site - holy well

The National Monuments Service's description

Situated in the centre of Lambay Island (Reachrainn) in the parish of Portraine.  Knockbane with hilltop cairn (DU009-001002-) 230m to the N,  Tinian Hill 500m to the E,  Lambay Church (DU009-001007- ), graveyard and castle site  (DU009-001006-) 700m to the W.  A  spring well, annotated 'Trinity Well' on the OSi historic maps, is the only source of freshwater on Lambay Island. In 1786 the Post-Chaise Companion recorded that ; 'on Trinity Sunday, every year, there is a great concourse of people from the adjacent shores, where they visit a curious well and spring of fine water, dedicated to the Holy Trinity' (Wilson 1786, 305).  Anne Plumptre wrote in 1814-15 that; 'There is a well on the island dedicated to the Holy Trinity, which is very much visited on Trinity Sunday' (Plumptre 1817, 80).  Trinity Sunday is the first Sunday after Pentecost in the Western Christian liturgical calendar (Healy 1975, 22; Ó Danachair 1958, 81; Coghlan 1946, 157-159; Scantlebury 1945, 81). The well is fenced off and covered in vegetation.

Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien

References

Plumptre, A. 1817 Narrative of a Residence in Ireland During the Summer of 1814, and that of 1815. London, H. Colburn. 

Healy, P. 1975b Third report on monuments and sites of archaeological interest in county Dublin. An Foras Forbartha, Dublin. Coghlan, C.J. 1946 Lambay. Dublin Historical Record 8, 157-59. Ó Danachair, C. 1958 The holy wells of county Dublin. Reportorium Novum 2, 68-87; 2, No. 2 The holy wells of County Dublin: A supplementary list, 233-5. Scantlebury, Rev. C.S. 1945 Lambay. Dublin Historical Record 7, 82-91. Wilson, W. 1786 The post-chaise companion: or, travellers directory, through Ireland. Dublin.