Ritual site - holy well

The National Monuments Service's description

Marked only on 1940 ed. of the OS 6-inch map where it is described as a covered Holy well, and situated on a S-facing slope c. 300m E of a col between hills that rise over it c. 600m to the SW and c. 500m to the NE. It was recorded locally (OSFM 1940) that the well had been blessed by a Fr. Vladimir Pecherin (1807-1885) and had a cure for toothache, although a a name for the well is not mentioned. Fr. Pecherin was born in the Ukraine and trained as a Russian Orthodox priest. In 1835 he was appointed professor of Greek language and antiquities at Moscow University, but he left the University and Russia the following year. In 1840 he converted to Catholicism and joined the Redemptorist Order at Clapham in London. In 1862 he left the Order and moved to Dublin where he served as a chaplain at the Mater Hospital and entered various controversies. His memoirs were virulently critical of the Russian government and the Roman Catholic church. For Fr. Pecherin see this web-page accessed on 15 May, 2014 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_Pecherin

The well is a natural spring beside a section of rock outcrop (H c. 1m) and the stream runs SE into a boggy area (dims c. 40m NW-SE; c. 10m NE-SW) called Bohernisighe – bother na Shee, the fairies road, which is part of a laneway that ran ENE c. 140m to a house that was marked on the 1839 ed. of the OS 6-inch map. There is no evidence of veneration and there is no local knowledge of it now. The standing stone (WX006-041----) is nearby.

Compiled by: Michael Moore

Date of upload: 21 November, 2012
Amended: 15 May, 2014

References

OSFM. Ordnance Survey Field Memorandums. A collection of survey notes and descriptions of monuments on pro-forma sheets compiled by Ordnance Survey field staff in the course of the 1:2500 map revision of various counties, mostly dating from 1931 – early 1960s. These unpublished manuscripts form part of the records of the Archaeological Survey of Ireland, National Monuments Service Archive, Dublin.