Ritual site - holy well

The National Monuments Service's description

Situated in rough pasture on a low rise of ground in undulating countryside. Nearby well (TN020-100----) 90m to W, bullaun stone reused as mass rock (TN020-157----) 320m to SSW. Holy well dedicated to St. Patrick which was described in the OS Letters in 1840 as 'formerly reputed a holy well but devotions at it have long been since discontinued' (O'Flanagan 1930, 118). In 1958 Gleeson wrote that as 'a small boy the writer often was taken to see this site which, in addition to a fine running spring of water, had two adjoining stones on which were pointed out the marks of St. Patrick's knees and of the point of his staff' (Gleeson 1958, 43). Described in 1985 as a disused holy well filled in in the late 1970s and described by a local landowner as a natural spring well with a flagstone surround and a possible bullaun stone (TN020-085002-). There is no trace of the bullaun stone (TN020-085002-) (FitzPatrick 1985, 109-12). It is not clear whether these two marked flagstones are the remains of a bullaun stone as recorded by Fitzpatrick or the remains of some other form of cup-marked stone.

The above description is derived from 'The Archaeological Inventory of County Tipperary. Vol. 1 - North Tipperary' compiled by Jean Farrelly and Caimin O'Brien (Dublin: Stationery Office, 2002). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research.

Compiled and revised by: Caimin O'Brien

Date of revised upload: 10 June 2016

References

O'Flanagan, Rev. M. (Compiler) 1930 Letters containing information relative to the antiquities of the county of Tipperary collected during the progress of the Ordnance Survey in 1840. Bray.

FitzPatrick, E. 1985 An archaeological survey of holy wells in the baronies of Arra and Owney, Upper and Lower Ormond. Unpublished typescript. National Monuments Section, Heritage and Planning Division, Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Dublin.

Gleeson, D.F. 1958 St. Patrick in Ormond. North Munster Antiquarian Journal 8, 42-4.