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Sites and Monuments Record · Ireland

Ritual site - holy well

Garrison, County Limerick, Ireland

Ordnance Survey six-inch map, 2nd edition (1888–1915) covering the location of Ritual site - holy well, Garrison, County Limerick, 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
Garrison
County
Limerick
Country
Ireland
First-edition OS map
Patricks Well
Latest-edition OS map
Patricks Well
Coordinates
52.54415, -8.34985
SMR number
LI024-072006-

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)
  • 1891 · Ireland 16 (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
  • 1904 · Sheet 13. (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

St. Patrick's Well described in 1840 as a 'spring well of very good water with a small rivulet flowing from it' (OSNB, 787). On N-side of tertiary roadway. Roughly square, earth-cut opening (L 1.2m; D 0.65m) defined by stone wall and field boundary to N, small stone step in SE-corner and partially covered by flagstone (L 1m; Wth 1.1m; T 0.12m). According to local information, this is the original roadside well located on the grass verge. Water flows under the field boundary (Wth 0.75m) to N and into an open, rectangular area (dims. 1.3m NNW-SSE; 3.15m ENE-WSW; D 0.15m). This part of the well is stone-faced (H 0.65m) against the field boundary (H 1.4m) to S, is defined by stone kerbing (H 0.16m) to N and is connected to a concrete culvert (long-axis ENE-WSW; Wth 0.6m) to E and W. The water flows through this rectangular area very rapidly and exits the culvert to E. The SW-portion of this rectangular area is silted up. Within area of medieval settlement (LI024-072001-) of 'Pailis Greine' which includes: Church (LI024-072004-), graveyard (LI024-072005-), motte (LI024-072002-) and castle (LI024-072003-). Described by Ó Danachair (1955, 206) as 'a small well on the roadside … there are no devotions … used for domestic supply and cattle.'

See attached photos taken in 1954 by Caoimhín Ó Danachair, courtesy of and © National Folklore Collection, UCD. The Photographic Collection, F025.21.00388 accessible online at www.duchas.ie/en/cbeg/24526 and F025.21.00387 accessible online at www.duchas.ie/en/cbeg/17059.

Compiled by: Alison McQueen and Vera Rahilly

Revised by: Caimin O'Brien

Date of revised upload: 2 October 2020

References

OSNB - Ordnance Survey Name Books. Pro-forma books arranged by Civil Parish for recording townland and other name-forms and compiled in the course of the OS 6-inch survey 1824-1841. The name books also include minor names and incidental references to antiquities. National Archives of Ireland.

Ó Danachair, C. 1955 The Holy Wells of County Limerick. Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 85, 193-217.

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 Limerick All County Limerick records All Ireland Heritage registers Historical markers (US)National Register of Historic Places (US)
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