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Sites and Monuments Record · Ireland

Ritual site - holy well

Davidstown (Ballyshannon ED), County Kildare, Ireland

Ordnance Survey six-inch map, 2nd edition (1888–1915) covering the location of Ritual site - holy well, Davidstown, 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
Davidstown (Ballyshannon ED)
County
Kildare
Country
Ireland
First-edition OS map
St. Johns Well
Latest-edition OS map
St. Johns Well
Coordinates
53.07198, -6.80195
SMR number
KD032-006----

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)

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

The National Monuments Service's description

In a small clearing in a coniferous plantation on a moderately steep E-facing slope, c. 175m SE of a medieval church (KD032-005----) and graveyard (KD032-005001-). While its existence is mentioned by O’Conor (Herity 2002, 96 [30]) who co-compiled the OSL for County Kildare, nothing else is recorded about the well. A wooden post and plastic trellis fence encloses an oval well (2.4m NW-SE; 2.1m NE-SW; D 0.9m) which is retained by a mortared stone wall (T 0.6m) which doesn’t rise above ground level. A circular concrete cistern and feed pipe abuts the well at NE and a modern cross slab (H 0.6m; Wth 0.45m; T 0.05m) is erected on its NE edge. (Jackson 1979-80, 155)

Compiled by: Gearóid Conroy

Date of upload: 14 October 2013

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.

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
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