Ritual site - holy well

The National Monuments Service's description

St. Kevin's Well lies on the S facing slope of a valley in the townland of Ballyman, parish of Oldconnaught. The well, or spring, rises at the foot of a bank on the N side of the County Brook which divides Dublin from Co. Wicklow. Medieval church ruins (DU028-002002-) lies 60m to the E. Holy well described in 1900 as follows; 'Near the church is a well, called after St. Kevin, and surrounded by trees on which, until lately, the rags hung by pilgrims to its healing waters were to be seen' (Anon. 1900, 187). Holy well was still venerated in the 1950's (Ó Danachair 1958, 84). The 1837 Ordnance Survey Letters recorded the site as a blessed well (Herity 2001, 33).

See attached photograph of St. Kevin's Well, Ballyman taken by Patrick Healy in 1979, from the Patrick Healy Collection accessible online at https://hdl.handle.net/10599/2621, © South Dublin Libraries, Local Studies Collection, County Library, Town Centre, Tallaght, Dublin 24

Compiled by Geraldine Stout and Padraig Clancy

Revised by: Caimin O'Brien

Date of revised upload: 21 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.

Herity, M. (ed.) 2001 Ordnance Survey Letters: Dublin. Dublin. Four Masters Press.

Anon. 1900 Excursion to Tully, Rathmichael, Kiltiernan and other places in south County Dublin. Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 30, 180-92.