Ritual site - holy well

The National Monuments Service's description

In low-lying undulating pastureland, c. 9m to the W of a N-S running road. Named St. Dima’s Well on the 1838 and 1929 editions of the OS 6-inch maps, though details from The Schools’ Collection (https://www.duchas.ie/en/cbes/4583354/4582269 last accessed 29 March 2023) indicate that it is known locally as Saint Dympna’s Holy Well. People would visit it especially in August and September and, according to tradition, the water of the well helped cure rheumatism.

On inspection this roughly D-shaped spring well (L 0.8m; Wth 0.5m; D 0.3m) was delimited by flagstones. A stone-lined pathway lead to it from a roadside gateway mounted with a cross. To the WNW a statue of St Dympna, according to the School’s Collection (ibid.), was encased in a glass-fronted concrete shrine, beneath which there was a fragment of worked stone. A bullaun stone (GA105-124002-) lay to the E of the well, while to the SE there was a rough cut-stone ‘seat’ (H 1.14m). There was a pattern tree (GA105-124003-) with rags tied to its branches to the SW. Current aerial imagery (OSi Digitalglobe (2011-2013)) indicates that the well is now obscured by trees and bushes. (O’Flanagan 1927, Vol. 2, 29; Killanin and Duignan 1967, 363).

Compiled by: Galway Archaeological Survey, UCG

Date of Upload: 12 April 2023

References

O'Flanagan, Rev. M. (Compiler) 1927 Letters containing information relative to the antiquities of the county of Galway collected during the progress of the Ordnance Survey in 1839. Typescript in 3 vols. Bray.

Killanin, M.M. and Duignan, M.V. 1967 (2nd ed.) The Shell guide to Ireland. London. The Ebury Press.