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Sites and Monuments Record · Ireland

Ritual site - holy well

Rathmacknee Great, County Wexford, Ireland

Ordnance Survey six-inch map, 2nd edition (1888–1915) covering the location of Ritual site - holy well, Rathmacknee Great, 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
Rathmacknee Great
County
Wexford
Country
Ireland
First-edition OS map
St. Martins Well
Latest-edition OS map
St. Martins Well
Coordinates
52.26940, -6.48942
SMR number
WX042-029003-

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 1790 map "Composite: Ireland." (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries).

Historical maps covering this location

  • 1790 · Composite: 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 1925 eds of the OS 6-inch map and described in gothic lettering on both as St. Martin’s Well. It is located c. 15m from the E bank of a small N-S stream on a level, low-lying landscape and c. 100m NE of the site of Rathmacknee church (WX042-029002-). According to John O’Donovan writing c. 1840 the pattern was held for a whole week beginning on the 11th of November, until it was abolished c. 1810 (O’Flanagan 1933, vol. 1, 291). It is not visible at ground level in pasture.
The dedication is to St. Martin of Tours. He was a Christian and a soldier in the Roman army, renowned for his charity. He was a devotee of St. Hillary, bishop of Potiers, who provided him with land for a monastery at Potiers, the first to be built in Gaul, and in 371 Martin became bishop of Tours. He continued to live a severe monastic life, founding the monastery of Marmoutier at Tours, and he died in AD 397. (Butler 1883, 161)

Compiled by: Michael Moore

Date of upload: 28 May, 2013
Amended: 15 January, 2014

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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