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Sites and Monuments Record · Ireland

Ritual site - holy well

Culmullin, County Meath, Ireland

Ordnance Survey six-inch map, 2nd edition (1888–1915) covering the location of Ritual site - holy well, Culmullin, County Meath, 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
Culmullin
County
Meath
Country
Ireland
First-edition OS map
Not indicated
Latest-edition OS map
St Nicholas Well
Coordinates
53.48671, -6.61192
SMR number
ME043-045----

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

Situated at the bottom of an E-facing slope with a NW-SE road just to the NE. The well is only depicted on the 1912 edition of the OS 6-inch map where it is described in italic script as ‘St. Nicholas’ Well’. Cogan (1867, 2, 351) regarded it as a holy well ‘eight feet six inches in diameter (c. 2.5m)’, and it was then accessed by a stile from the road which was decorated with a cross and the name ‘St. Nicholas’s Well’. In the 1930s (IFC Schools Collection, vol. 689, 121) it was described as having flagstones around it inside a picket fence, and while there was no pattern it had a cure for headaches. Today there is a hollow (diam. of top 4m; diam. of base 2.5m; max. D 0.8m) occupied by a pump-house accessed directly from the road. (French 2012, 72-3)

Compiled by: Michael Moore

Date of upload: 26 August 2019

References

French, N. 2012 Meath Holy Wells. Meath Heritage Centre

IFC Schools' MSS: Irish Folklore Commission Schools' Manuscripts. Department of Folklore. University College, Dublin.

Cogan, Rev. A. 1862-70 Ecclesiastical history of the diocese of Meath: ancient and modern. (3 vols) Dublin: John Fowler, Joseph Dollard

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