Ritual site - holy well

The National Monuments Service's description

Marked only on the 1941 ed. of the OS 6-inch map where it is described as St. Nicholas’ Well. St. Nicholas of Myra, whose feastday falls on the 6th December, was a 4th century bishop in Turkey and a renowned gift-giver, on whom much of the character of Santa Claus is based (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Nicholas), but there is no record of a pattern. The well is situated at the bottom of a steep S-facing slope and 5m N of a SW-NE stream. The well (dims 1.35m E-W; 1.1m N-S) is excavated into the slope (D 1.7m at N, upslope) and it is lined with stones which have collapsed into the well, but water still runs from it to the stream. There is no evidence of veneration, although it was visited for health cures inthe 1940s (OSFM). The church site of Chapel Carron (WX037-011001-) is c. 280m downstream to the NE.

Compiled by: Michael Moore

Date of upload: 13 December, 2012

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 These unpublished manuscripts form part of the records of the Archaeological Survey of Ireland, National Monuments Service Archive, Dublin.