Sites and Monuments Record · Ireland
Ritual site - holy well
Tawnagh (tirerrill By.), County Sligo, Ireland
The record
- Townland
- Tawnagh (tirerrill By.)
- County
- Sligo
- Country
- Ireland
- Latest-edition OS map
- St Patricks Well
- Coordinates
- 54.11003, -8.40163
- SMR number
- SL034-028----
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 1790 "Composite: Ireland." (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries).
This record in the National Monuments Service's Historic Environment Viewer ↗
The National Monuments Service's description
In low-lying pasture, c. 250m to N of Tawnagh church (SL034-085001-) and c. 200m N of a graveyard (SL034-085002-). A natural spring rises through limestone bedrock on the NW edge of a mound (H c. 0.8m) and feeds a fast-flowing stream to NW. Two roughly rectangular stones (0.28m x 0.25m x 0.1m and 0.35m x 0.25m x 0.15m) on top of the mound with shallow hollows cut into the surface of each are, according to local information, said to be the knee prints of St Patrick. A roughly circular area (diam. 1.6m x 1.5m) to NW in front of the mouth of the well is defined by a low setting of stones and through it the outflow of the spring flows. In 1836 it was recorded as 'St Patrick's Well, Tobar Patraig...whose day is celebrated there as Patron Saint of the Parish' (OSL, 154). In 1942-4 it was noted that very few people visit the well, there being no annual pilgrimage day (ITA). There is no evidence of recent veneration at this well.
The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Sligo' compiled by Ursula Egan, Elizabeth Byrne, Mary Sleeman with Sheila Ronan and Connie Murphy (Dublin Stationery Office, 2005).
Date of upload: 18 January 2008
Nearby in the register
Other entries of the same register within about three miles of this one, by straight line.