TreeAlive
‹ Sites and Monuments Record, Ireland

Sites and Monuments Record · Ireland

Ritual site - holy well

Mill Island, County Kilkenny, Ireland

Ordnance Survey six-inch map, 2nd edition (1888–1915) covering the location of Ritual site - holy well, Mill Island, County Kilkenny, 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
Mill Island
County
Kilkenny
Country
Ireland
First-edition OS map
St. James Well
Latest-edition OS map
St. Jamess Well
Coordinates
52.53430, -7.36400
SMR number
KK026-011----

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)
  • 1869 · Ireland. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
  • 1882 · Ireland (southern half). (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

In rough pasture, c. 20m S of Kings River and c. 15m N of the Callan-Kells road. According to Carrigan (1905, vol. 3, 323-4) this is, ‘one of the finest springs in Co. Kilkenny. A pattern, with the usual pilgrimages, was held here formerly’. O’Kelly (1969, 154) mentions that the pattern day of the well, known as ‘Tobar San Séain’ or ‘St. James’s Well’, was held on the last Sunday in July up until the early years of the twentieth century.

Compiled by: Jean Farrelly

Date of upload: 10 May 2022

References

Carrigan, Rev. W. 1905 (Reprint 1981) The history and antiquities of the diocese of Ossory, 4 vols. Kilkenny. Roberts Books and Wellbrook Press.

O'Kelly, O. 1969 (Reissue 1985) The place-names of County Kilkenny. Kilkenny.

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 Kilkenny All County Kilkenny records All Ireland Heritage registers Historical markers (US)National Register of Historic Places (US)
See your own family's places on a living map