Building

The National Monuments Service's description

Situated on a N-facing slope, in undulating pasture. St Patrick's or Scardan holy well (WM020-056----) lies c. 150m to SW. Depicted on the 1837 ed. OS 6-inch map as a rectangular-shaped building aligned on an E-W axis. Annotated 'Ruin' on the 1837 OS Fair Plan map. According to local folklore this area known as Scarden is closely connected with St. Patrick and 'is mentioned by O'Donovan in his "Letters" as the place called Scártán - a little brake where St. Patrick stopped on his way to Clonard' (The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0727, Page 018). According to the Schools' manuscripts 'The well comes from a hill on its South side and track and trenches and mounds indicate remains of a building of some sort and probably a graveyard' (ibid.).
Site of building mentioned above in the Schools' Collection of 1938 and described in 1981 as only the foundation courses of a rectangular shaped house or building can be traced amongst very dense growth. The ruin is probably that of an old cottage. It is in close proximity to the holy well although there are no known associations between the two. Levelled site described in 1983 as the area occupied by the building has been levelled and only a small pile of loose stones and small boulders which lie against the field fence to SW and E, may represent debris from this field clearance. In the field, to south of this ‘ruin' a low scarp with traces of a very low earthen bank on its edge can be traced forming a wide arc. This one may be the remains of the northern part of a circular or oval enclosure. No definite traces of the east, south or SW points of such an enclosure can be traced. Levelled monument is not visible today on Digital Globe aerial photography.

Compiled by: Alison McQueen, Vera Rahilly and Caimin O’Brien

Date of upload: 04 July 2019