Ritual site - holy well

The National Monuments Service's description

Located in damp, rush-grown ground.
This holy well is indicated on the 1838 and 1920 OS 6-inch maps, where it is named ‘Loughkeeraun Well’. On the 1838 edition a lake (max. dim. c. 50m) is shown. On both the 1838 and 1920 a ‘Fair Green’ is indicated close by to SE.
The name of the well suggests that it was dedicated to St. Ciaran. In the 1838 OS Letters, O’Donovan recorded the well and the traditional practices associated with it as follows: ‘At this Lough, which is a small pool in a bog to left of the road…there is usually a patron held on the Sunday commonly called Garlick but recte Garland Sunday, a named assumed from the circumstances of Ceres, the Goddess of Corn, being worshiped on that day, on which occasion garlands made of the stalks of corn with the ears on were, it is said, worn in her honour. This Sunday is in Irish called Domhnach Chrom Dubh…The people it is said swim their horses in the lake on that day to defend them against incidental evils during the year, and throw spancels and halters in to it, which they leave there on the occasion. They are also accustomed to throw butter into it with the intention that their cows may be sufficiently productive of milk and butter during the year…After the crowd have gone away the poor, who have not the necessities of life otherwise than by obtaining them by alms from liberal or charitable people, assemble and carry off as much butter as they can gather out of the lake. There was formerly a tree (SL070-166002-) at this place, around which the people were in the habit of fastening by a noose, cords (búaracha) that were used in tying cows…The Priests have dissuaded the people from getting on with their ceremonies at the lake so far that they are altogether giving them up. The stations are still practiced on the patron day, but the people are ceasing from throwing butter into it or going on with their other practices at it’ (O’Flanagan 1927, 366-370 (151-152)).
The holy well consists of a semi-circular pool (diam. c. 1m) defined by a stone wall (H 0.5m), which appears to be of recent date. The enclosing wall is open on the N side where a channel extends to N from the well. The channel expands into another pool c. 3m N of the well, from which two smaller channels branch to N and NE.
On the 1838 OS 6-inch map, three small upright features, named ‘Monuments’, are shown to E of the well; they are indicted on the 1920 edition as ‘Monuments (Site of)’. There are no visible traces of these monumental structures (MA070-166003-; MA070-166004-; MA070-166005-), and it is unknown what they represented; one possibility is that they were penitential cairns. There is a church (MA070-167001-) c. 400m to ENE, and a rath (MA070-168----) c. 170m to S.

Compiled by: Jane O'Shaughnessy

Date of upload: 29 January 2018

References

O'Flanagan, Rev. M. (Compiler) 1927 Letters containing information relative to the antiquities of the county of Mayo collected during the progress of the Ordnance Survey in 1838. Bray.