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Sites and Monuments Record · Ireland

Ritual site - holy well

Tully (Castlereagh By.), County Roscommon, Ireland

Ordnance Survey six-inch map, 2nd edition (1888–1915) covering the location of Ritual site - holy well, Tully, County Roscommon, 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
Tully (Castlereagh By.)
County
Roscommon
Country
Ireland
First-edition OS map
St Patricks Well
Latest-edition OS map
St Patricks Well
Coordinates
53.81629, -8.41259
SMR number
RO021-022001-

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)
  • 1811 · Ireland. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
  • 1869 · Ireland. (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

On a shelf towards the bottom of a S-facing slope overlooking a bog to the SE, and c. 20m N of church (RO021-022008-), which is on the other (S) side of the NE-SW Bellanagare to Castlerea road. A basin (diam. 0.3m; D 0.1m) of a double bullaun stone (RO021-022003-) serving as a holy well is set in the ground in an alcove (dims 0.5m x 0.5m; H 0.5-0.7m) at the centre of an overgrown penitential cairn (RO021-022004-) (dims c. 5.5m E-W; c. 4m N-S; H c. 1m). A roofless drystone-built passage (Wth 1m; H 0.8m) leads to the alcove from the W, and the bullaun stone has a second basin (diam. 0.45m; D 0.1m) partly hidden by the cairn.
A stone penal-style cross (RO021-022013-) (H 0.48m; Span 0.2m; T 0.1m) is set on the cairn over the bullaun stone, and a rectangular slab (RO021-022014-) (dims 0.22m x 0.21m; T 0.06m) with crosses incised on both faces is nearby. At the W edge of the cairn is a hollow ash tree (RO021-022002-) known as St Patrick’s walking stick (Circumference: 6.7m). The rough-out of a millstone (RO021-022007-) (diam. 0.8m; T 0.2m) which has a central unfinished and flat-bottomed perforation (diam. 0.37m; D 0.05m) is nearby. This has sometimes been mistaken for another bullaun stone (RO021-022006-). Knox (1902c, 188-9) describes a building (RO021-022005-) on the N side of the cairn, which may have been a church (RO021-022008-) but which cannot be seen now.

Compiled by: Michael Moore

Date of revised upload: 3 July 2015

References

Knox, H.T. 1902c Miscellanea - Bullauns, forming two of St. Patrick's Wells in Connaught. Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 32, 188-90.

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