Ritual site - holy well

The National Monuments Service's description

St. Eusebius’ Well is marked on the 1839 and 1941 eds of the OS 6-inch map. St. Eusebius of Vercelli in Italy was a 4th century saint renowned for introducing monasticism to the west and for his endeavours against the Arian heresy (Butler 1990, 108) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eusebius_of_Vercelli). The well is situated towards the head of a small W-E valley and in an recess cut into an embankment on the N side of an E-W laneway. John O’Donovan writing c. 1840 recorded that the pattern was suppressed c. 1790 (O’Flanagan 1933, vol. 1, 359). He does not record the date of the pattern that was probably on St. Eusebius’ feastday, which is celebrated on August 2nd. He did record that the well provided a cure for sore eyes and headaches and that there was a rag tree adjacent.
The well is a subrectangular feature (int. dims. 1.7m N-S; 0.9-1.3m E-W) set in the ground and defined by a masonry wall flush with the ground at W, rock outcrop at N, a slab (L 0.85m; H 0.8m; T 0.15m) at E, and a single slab (L 1.2m; H 0.6m; T 0.15m) with two drain-holes (diam. 8-10 cm) one above the other at S. The well is the source of a small stream that leads through an open stone-lined channel (L 1.05m; Wth 0.35-0.5m) to a lintelled channel that crosses the lane into the field S of the lane. A holly tree growing from the embankment of the recess at N has some hanging baskets and plastic bags, some of which appear to contain samples of medical bandages. The church (WX037-024001-) is c. 100m to the S.

Compiled by: Michael Moore

Date of upload: 7 June, 2013

References

Butler, Rev. A. 1883 Lives of the Saints. J. S. Virtue London and Dublin, Reprint (1990) London. Studio Editions (Abridged)