Ritual site - holy well

The National Monuments Service's description

Situated on W-facing slope in a mature forestry plantation. Holy well in the parish of Glenealy that was annotated 'Lady's Well' on the 1838 ed. OS 6-inch map. On this map a farmhouse now gone was shown 40m to the SSE of 'Lady's Well'. The holy well lies immediately S of the townland boundary with Aghowle Upper and is 950m SW of the summit of Carrick Mountain. A bullaun stone (WI024-018----) lies 750m to WNW. In 1839 'Lady's Well' was described by O'Curry in the OS Letters as having a great Patron [Pattern] day on the 15th of August, which had been held annually until it ceased in the year 1798 (O'Flanagan 1928, 119; Price 1967, 438; Ronan 1928, 138). According to Lynch (1994, 640) the water was used as a cure for colds, and was never used for household purposes and there was a hawthorn bush at the well.
The holy well has been recently uncovered by local people and an annual pilgrimage is now held at the site (pers. comm. Rosaleen Durkin). An information plaque and signage has also been erected by the local group.

Photographs supplied courtesy of Rosaleen Durkin.

The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Wicklow' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1997). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research.

Revised by: Caimin O'Brien

Date of revised upload: 8 May 2020

References

O'Flanagan, Rev. M. (Compiler) 1928 Letters containing information relative to the antiquities of the county of Wicklow collected during the progress of the Ordnance Survey in 1838. Bray.

Price, L. 1967 The place-names of Co. Wicklow. VII - The baronies of Newcastle and Arklow. The Dublin Institute of Advanced Studies (382-532).

Ronan, Rev. M.V. 1928 The ancient churches of the deanery of Wicklow. Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 58, 132-55.

Lynch, G. 1994 The holy wells of county Wicklow: traditions and legends. In K. Hannigan and W. Nolan (eds), Wicklow history and society, 625-48. Dublin. Geography Publications.