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Sites and Monuments Record · Ireland

Ritual site - holy well

Cromwells Fort, County Wexford, Ireland

Ordnance Survey six-inch map, 2nd edition (1888–1915) covering the location of Ritual site - holy well, Cromwells Fort, County Wexford, with a pin at the register's coordinates
Ordnance Survey six-inch map, 2nd edition (1888–1915), covering this location. Courtesy of the National Library of Scotland. The pin is ours, placed from the register's coordinates.

The record

Townland
Cromwells Fort
County
Wexford
Country
Ireland
First-edition OS map
St, Nicholas Well
Latest-edition OS map
St. Nicholas Well
Coordinates
52.32823, -6.46086
SMR number
WX037-039----

Slide toward Today to fade the historical sheet and see the modern map underneath.

University Library, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

4 historical maps cover this location, the earliest the 1811 map "Ireland." (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries).

Historical maps covering this location

  • 1811 · Ireland. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
  • 1891 · Ireland 16 (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
  • 1904 · Sheet 14, 1904 (University Library, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam)
  • 1911 · Sheet 14, 1911 (University Library, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam)

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This record in the National Monuments Service's Historic Environment Viewer ↗

The National Monuments Service's description

Marked on the 1839 and 1941 eds of the OS 6-inch map and described in gothic lettering on both as St. Nicholas’ Well. It is situated towards the bottom of a steep N-facing slope in a mature deciduous wood. 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) (Butler 1990, 175), but there is no record of a pattern.There is now an abandoned concrete reservoir at the location, with no evidence of an ancient well or of veneration.

Compiled by: Michael Moore

Date of upload: 20 December, 2012

References

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

Nearby in the register

Other entries of the same register within about three miles of this one, by straight line.

Sites and Monuments Record data: National Monuments Service, Government of Ireland, licensed under CC BY 4.0. Record text is reproduced unchanged. National Monuments Service, Government of Ireland · CC BY 4.0
All Ritual site - holy well in Wexford All County Wexford records All Ireland Heritage registers Historical markers (US)National Register of Historic Places (US)
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