Ritual site - holy well

The National Monuments Service's description

In a hollow overlooked by Ogulla church site (RO022-0106001-) c. 50m to the E and with a NW-SE stream c. 40m to the W. Traditionally St Patrick baptised Eithne and Fedelm, daughters of the High King Laoighre, at this well, which was then called Clebach, where they died and were buried inside an earthen mound (Stokes 1887b, 99-103; O'Flanagan 1931, vol. 1, 126-7; Gormley 1989, 63-6).
A subcircular well (dims 0.75m x 0.5m) defined by drystone walling is in the middle of an oval pond (dims c. 10m NW-SE; c. 5m NE-SW) and reached by a bridge from the S, although the well itself is usually dry. This well is overlooked by a large deciduous tree where a fragment of the head of a high cross (RO022-106005-) (Harbison 1992, vol. 1, 185; Kelly 1993, 154-6), now in NMI but replaced by a replica (Kelly 1994), was kept. It consists of the crux (dims c 0.8m x 0.8m; T 0.3m) with a large boss on one face and a plainly-carved head on the other. There is a rag tree (RO022-106006-) at the edge of the pond. The stream flows SW, widening into a second pond where there is a second rectangular well (dims 0.8m x 0.75m) defined by concrete and drystone walling and surmounted by a modern cross. A standing stone (RO022-106007-) (dims 0.6m NW-SE; 0.25-0.5m NE-SW; H 1.04m) is in this pond.
The stream joins a larger NW-SE stream c. 50m to the SW of form Ogulla Stream. The well was consolidated in the 1970s, and Stations of the Cross now follow the SE bank of its stream. The pavilion that was used during the papal visit to Knock in 1979 is re-erected at the site, and a pattern is held on the last Sunday in June (Gormley 1989, 65-7). Moated site (RO028-014001-) is c. 240m to the SSE. (Healy 2001, 62-3)

Compiled by: Michael Moore

Date of upload: 24 August 2010

References

Healy, E. 2001 In search of Ireland's holy wells. Dublin. Wolfhound.

Harbison, P. 1992 The high crosses of Ireland: an iconographical and photographic survey, 3 vols. Dublin. Royal Irish Academy. Bonn. Dr. Rudolf Habelt GMBH.

Kelly, D. 1993 Some remains of high crosses in the west of Ireland. Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 123, 152-63.

Stokes, W. 1887 The tripartite life of Patrick, 2 vols. London. HMSO.

O'Flanagan, Rev. M. (Compiler) 1931 Letters containing information relative to the antiquities of the county of Roscommon collected during the progress of the
Ordnance Survey in 1837. Bray.

Gormley, M. (compiler) 1989 Tulsk parish in historic Maigh Aí. Aspects of its history and folklore. Author

Kelly, D. 1994 Miscellanea: Cross at Ogulla, County Roscommon. Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, 124, 213