TreeAlive
‹ Sites and Monuments Record, Ireland

Sites and Monuments Record · Ireland

Ritual site - holy well

Hartwell Lower, County Kildare, Ireland

Ordnance Survey six-inch map, 2nd edition (1888–1915) covering the location of Ritual site - holy well, Hartwell Lower, County Kildare, with a pin at the register's coordinates
Ordnance Survey six-inch map, 2nd edition (1888–1915), covering this location. Courtesy of the National Library of Scotland. The pin is ours, placed from the register's coordinates.

The record

Townland
Hartwell Lower
County
Kildare
Country
Ireland
First-edition OS map
Not indicated
Latest-edition OS map
St. Bridgets Well
Coordinates
53.23858, -6.57577
SMR number
KD020-004----

Slide toward Today to fade the historical sheet and see the modern map underneath.

David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries

4 historical maps cover this location, the earliest the 1790 map "Composite: Ireland." (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries).

Historical maps covering this location

  • 1790 · Composite: Ireland. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
  • 1799 · Ireland. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
  • 1830 · V.3:11-15:XV. Britisches Reich. C. Kon: Ireland. a. Prov: Leinster. Counties: 1-12 (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
  • 1891 · Ireland 16 (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)

Get directions ↗

This record in the National Monuments Service's Historic Environment Viewer ↗

The National Monuments Service's description

Fitzgerald (1915-7, 494) described, 'St. Bridget's Well on Mr. Lyon's farm (as) … now sadly neglected; it is unenclosed, and trodden around by cattle. Though a strong flow of water boils up in it, yet from its position by the side of a gripe, it would require a native of the locality to point it out.' Jackson (1979-80, 161) says the well was visited for toothache and earache cures and tokens were left at it. It was said to have been formerly linked via St. Brigid's path to her church at Kill (KD019-008002-). However, the well was not associated with a pattern and is now covered by a pump house. Visible on a 2005 aerial photo (OSi Orthophoto) with a very large drainage channel leading NNE from the well-house. A holy tree (KD020-004001-) once stood nearby. (Herity 2002, 23 (65))

Compiled by: Gearóid Conroy

Date of upload: 10 June 2011

Nearby in the register

Other entries of the same register within about three miles of this one, by straight line.

Sites and Monuments Record data: National Monuments Service, Government of Ireland, licensed under CC BY 4.0. Record text is reproduced unchanged. National Monuments Service, Government of Ireland · CC BY 4.0
All Ritual site - holy well in Kildare All County Kildare records All Ireland Heritage registers Historical markers (US)National Register of Historic Places (US)
See your own family's places on a living map