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Sites and Monuments Record · Ireland

Ritual site - holy well

Moneygold, County Sligo, Ireland

Ordnance Survey six-inch map, 2nd edition (1888–1915) covering the location of Ritual site - holy well, Moneygold, County Sligo, 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
Moneygold
County
Sligo
Country
Ireland
Latest-edition OS map
St. Molaises Holy Well
Coordinates
54.40501, -8.51102
SMR number
SL005-004001-

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 1869 map "Ireland." (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries).

Historical maps covering this location

  • 1869 · Ireland. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
  • 1891 · Ireland 16 (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
  • 1904 · Sheet 4. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
  • 1922 · Ireland - northern section. (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

Located at the base of the N-facing slope of a hill, in the SW corner of a field, with a ruined vernacular cottage 15m to N. This holy well consists of a natural spring contained within a roughly D-shaped cavity (1.4m N–S; 1.4m E–W; D 1m) which is faced with stone. A curving drystone wall defines the E–S side of the well but the N and W walls are straight. The N wall consists of one or possibly two large edge-set slabs. The well is enclosed on all sides by the slumped, grass-covered W-facing slope of a penitential cairn (SL005-004003-). There is a bullaun stone (SL005-004002-) on top of the penitential cairn, a few meters SE of the well. A church and graveyard (SL005-005001-; SL005-005002-) are located c. 100m to ENE. According to local tradition, water from the well was especially valued as a cure for sick cattle.

Attached images:
SL005-004001_01.JPG Location of well in W slope of penitential cairn (SL005-004003-) indicated by ranging rod.
SL005-004001_02.JPG Stone facing of well

Compiled by: Jane O'Shaughnessy

Date of upload: 11 December 2015

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