Ritual site - holy well

The National Monuments Service's description

St Patrick's Well in the townland of Jamestown, parish of Tully, is located on a gentle NE facing slope. This is a small spring well in a private garden. A statue of St. Patrick is in a niche over the well. Still venerated on St. Patrick's day (Ó Danachair 1958, 84). Folklore collected from Kiltiernan School recorded the following tradition about this well; 'There is only one holy well in this district. It is supposed to have been there since the time of St Patrick. It is a fairly small one. It has a small white statue of St Patrick in a hole in the wall around it. It is about two feet deep. There are two white-thorn bushes beside it. You would know by the stone wall that it is very old.
It’s in the town-land of Jamestown, on the right hand side of the road between Stepaside and Kilternan. There is a big gate with St Patrick’s written on it, and an avenue leads up to well. Mr. Mc Cowan owns the field it is in. The water is not used. There is a little step leading down to it. About twenty years back the people used to visit it. Some of them used to go around it, and as they would go around, they would pray, when they would be leaving they would tie a rag on one of the bushes, or beads. If they thought that they would be cured by going to it, if they had bad eye sight they might leave their glasses, or something like that, or if they thought their sores would be made better, they would dip their hand into the well and pour water on the sore.
There are no fish in this well. It has a lovely rockery around it now. Mr. Mc Cowan has made it nice with flowers around it. He is about thirty years there. I was only once at the well and that was not long ago. I thought it was very nice, as all the flowers were out in bloom. The people don’t believe in going and praying at it now. They don’t put rags or beads on the trees nowadays' (The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0797, Page 100; https://www.duchas.ie/en/cbes/4428231/4387323/4458686).

Compiled by: Geraldine Stout and Padraig Clancy.

Revised by: Caimin O'Brien

Date of revised upload: 20 April 2023

References

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.