TreeAlive
‹ Sites and Monuments Record, Ireland

Sites and Monuments Record · Ireland

Ritual site - holy well

Ballyla, County Wexford, Ireland

Ordnance Survey six-inch map, 2nd edition (1888–1915) covering the location of Ritual site - holy well, Ballyla, 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
Ballyla
County
Wexford
Country
Ireland
First-edition OS map
St. Colums Well
Latest-edition OS map
St. Colums Well
Coordinates
52.37230, -6.43046
SMR number
WX038-002----

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)

Get directions ↗

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

The National Monuments Service's description

Situated on a slight W-facing slope with a small N-S stream c. 35m to the W. According to John O’Donovan writing c. 1840 a pattern was held at this well on June 9th in honour of St. Columkille, or Colum Cille, of Iona (O’Flanagan 1933, vol. 1, 307). The well is a natural spring, now concreted over. St. Colum Cille is one of the best-documented saints from early Ireland and was commemorated throughout the country as one of the three national saints. He was from the ruling Ceinéal Conaill of Donegal, but his mother, Eithne, may have been connected with the Uí Bhairrche of Carlow/Wexford. He was educated by Fionnbharr of Movila in Co. Down, but his secret copying of a text led to the battle of Cúil Dreimhne and his self-imposed exile in Iona, where his monastery, founded c. 550, became the centre of the Columban mission to Britain and the continent. (Ó Riain 2011, 211-14)

Compiled by: Michael Moore

Date of upload: 18 January, 2012

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)
See your own family's places on a living map