Sites and Monuments Record · Ireland
Ritual site - holy well
Carrowndangan, County Mayo, Ireland
The record
- Townland
- Carrowndangan
- County
- Mayo
- Country
- Ireland
- First-edition OS map
- St. Patricks Well
- Latest-edition OS map
- St. Patricks Well
- Coordinates
- 53.82129, -9.05920
- SMR number
- MA080-046002-
Slide toward Today to fade the historical sheet and see the modern map underneath.
David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries
Shown on 4 historical map sheets, the earliest the 1753 "Mappa geographica Regni Hiberniae" (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries).
This record in the National Monuments Service's Historic Environment Viewer ↗
The National Monuments Service's description
In pasture, located on a gentle slope c. 40m SE of a rath (MA080-046001-).
Named ‘St Patrick’s Well’ on the 1838 and 1919 OS 6-inch maps, this consist of a circular sod-covered earth and stone mound (diam. 6-7.5m; H 0.6m) with a shallow central hollow (diam. 0.8-1m; D 0.25m). Unusually, the well is not located at a spring but, according to tradition, utilised water gathered in the hollow of a bullaun stone (MA080-046003-). An account of this was recorded by Knox (1902, 188-9): ‘The well consists of a hollow in a large stone which is slightly below ground level, and has the appearance of being having been built around. The hollow is oval, 17 inches by 15 inches, and 7 inches deep [0.43m by 0.39m by 0.18m]. Although there is no spring, it is said that there is always water in it…The country people say that stations used to be held, marked by wooden crosses, starting from the well and round the rath back to the well.’ When inspected in 1998, there was no trace of the bullaun stone in the central hollow of the mound.
Compiled by: Jane O’Shaughnessy
Date of upload: 3 December 2021
References
Knox, H.T. 1902 Bullauns, forming two of St. Patrick’s wells in Connaught. Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 32, 188-190
Nearby in the register
- Bullaun stoneunder 1 mi
- Ringfort - rathunder 1 mi
- Churchunder 1 mi
- Enclosureunder 1 mi
Other entries of the same register within about three miles of this one, by straight line.