Ritual site - holy well

The National Monuments Service's description

In a small clearing in a broadleaf plantation, some 90m N of the W-flowing Finnery River. In 1837, O’Conor, who co-compiled the OSL for County Kildare, recorded, ‘ … there is a well called ‘Fuaran Well’ at which a patron was formerly held on the 29nth of June and on the 15nth of August …’ (Herity 2002, 146 [160]). Jackson (1979-80, 158), however, says patrons were held on August 15th and September 29th, and that the well was used to cure skin ailments and was apparently resorted to by large numbers of pilgrims travelling from south-east Wicklow and Wexford. She also records a local tradition that monks fleeing from Henry VII’s soldiers were killed here, and that the last patron held ended in a faction fight. An unenclosed oval hollow (5m E-W; 3m N-S; D 1m) with no visible evidence of veneration or use as a holy well.

Compiled by: Gearóid Conroy

Date of upload: 01 October 2013

References

Herity, M. (ed.) 2002 Ordnance Survey Letters Kildare. Dublin. Four Masters Press.

Jackson, P. 1979-80 The holy wells of Co. Kildare. Journal of the Kildare Archaeological Society 16, 133-61.