Ritual site - holy well

The National Monuments Service's description

Three wells are represented as antiquities and are named ‘St Augustine’s Wells’ on both the OS Fair Plan and 1st ed. 6-inch map, on the roadside at the High Water Mark on W side of Loch an tSáile on outskirts of Galway city. Two of these wells (GA094-096---- and GA094-098----) are indicated as being side by side at the NE and the third is located c. 90m to the SW (GA094-097----). The sources do not entirely agree on the nomenclature of these wells. Fr McErlean (1905-6, 146) records that only the SW well was dedicated to ‘St Augustine’s Well’ whereas the two NE wells were dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary and St John the Baptist (1904, 52): it is not clear which well was dedicated to whom. That only the SW well was specifically dedicated to St Augustine is supported by the fact that only this well (GA094-097----) is indicated on the map of this area among the Erasmus Smith papers surveyed by Thomas Sherrard in 1785 (SMR file). In addition, only one St Augustine’s well is referenced in the index to the mid-seventeenth century Pictorial Map of Galway (NUI Galway, Hardiman Library; Synopsis, in orientem, 3, (St. Augustine’s well, on the southern side of the hill) S. Augustini fons in australi latere montis). However, Logan’s map of Galway, dated 1818, shows three wells side by side and these are named as St Augustine’s Wells (Hardiman 1820, facing p. 279). Only two of the three wells indicated on the OS 1st ed. 6-inch sheet were named on the OS 1:2500 survey plan of 1893-5, one to the NE and one to the SW. The published plan does not display a symbol to indicate the precise location of the NE well but it is assumed that it was located immediately W of the name. The NE well is recorded as ‘Site of’ on the 1944 revision of this plan. No visible trace survives of the NE wells (GA094-096---- and GA094-098----). The surviving SW well, St Augustine's Well, (GA094-097----) is tidal and was restored by the Galway Civic Trust in 2000. It consists of a concrete hexagonal trough surrounded by a low dry-stone enclosing wall. Hardiman (1846, 88-9) records details of an 'Extraordinary Cure' which occurred at St. Augustine's well (GA094-097----) in 1673. (Hardiman 1846, 88-9; OS Letters, Vol. 1, 403; Gosling 1993, no. 767)

This record relates to one of the two NE wells. It has not proved possible to plot with certainty its exact location and the current location should only be considered as approximate.

Compiled by: Paul Walsh

Date of upload: 1 March 2016

References

Gosling, P. (compiler) 1993 Archaeological inventory of County Galway, vol. 1: West Galway. Dublin. Stationery Office.

Hardiman, J. 1820 The history of the town and county of the town of Galway from the earliest period to the present time. Dublin.

Hardiman, J. (ed) 1846 A chorographical description of West or H-Iar Connaught written in A.D. 1684 by Roderic O'Flaherty, Esq. Dublin.

OSL - Ordnance Survey Letters. Letters written by members of the Ordnance Survey's 'Topographical Department' (T. O'Conor, A. O'Curry, E. Curry, J. O'Donovan and P. O'Keeffe) sent to headquarters from the field (1834-41). MSS in Royal Irish Academy.

McErlean, J. 1905-6 Notes on the Pictorial Map of Galway. The Index to the map. Translation with notes. Journal of the Galway Archaeological and Historical Society, 4, 133-160.