The Nuns Well

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A single storey building of oblong plan and domical form, built of sandstone, basalt, and slate rubble, partly rendered. Entrance faces approximately north.
Entrance front is in a flat plane of segmental arched profile: built of snecked stonework, containing a segmental-arched entrance in the centre. Shaped sandstone voussoirs, three of them with a torus moulding to the reveal. Archway surmounted by a shaped keystone block bearing a sculpted human face in relief, in primitive style. Entrance wall surmounted by a concrete coping formed by the edge of the roof covering. Sides, curved rear, and domical roof of structure are covered with a concrete render, cracked and spalled in places to reveal the rubble stone carcase.
The interior is a single cell space, clearly visible from the exterior through the open entrance, and is approached down one step to water level. Plan is rectangular at water level changing to coved plan above by means of corbelled rear corners; roof stone vaulted of domical form. A lead pipe emerges from rear wall into water; a rusted broken iron pipe projects from the right-hand wall.

SETTING: The structure stands in the parkland pasture to the north of Rosemount House (Grey Abbey House), surrounded by mature trees but easily visible from the adjacent Cistercian abbey ruins. There is a small tree growing up against its west side.

Historical information

Built as a well house; precise date not known, but it appears on the OS map of 1834 marked as ‘The Nuns Well’, while it has traditionally been regarded as an ancient well, associated with the Cistercian abbey of Grey Abbey whose ruins stand nearby. Walter Harris in 1744 referred to it as follows: “In the gardens of this abbey is a large well of sweet and limpid water, over which is raised a high vaulted arch, ornamented with heads, and some other sculpture in stone, which seems to be the same piece of architecture that stood here when the abbey subsisted. The water of this well never fails in the driest season, and feeds a large canal.” The architectural features described in 1744 have long gone, probably by the time J.J. Phillips described the ruins at Grey Abbey in 1874, as he quoted Harris’s 1744 description in reference to the well, and certainly by 1940 when the present arrangement was noted.

The present building probably dates from the mid-to-late 18th century, erected as much for reasons of creating an interesting garden landscape feature as for practical reasons of protecting a water supply. The arch over the present doorway incorporates voussoirs with a torus moulding, probably reused medieval fragments from the nearby abbey, while the sculpted head has the appearance of dating from the Early Christian era although its date is uncertain.

The structure stands within the area of a scheduled monument, the Cistercian abbey of Grey Abbey (SMR: Down 11.10).

References – Primary Sources
1. W. Harris, The Antient and Present State of the County of Down (Dublin, 1744), p 55.
2. OS Map 1834, Co Down 11 (marked as ‘The Nuns Well’).

Secondary Sources
1. J.J. Phillips, Grey Abbey, Co Down (Belfast, 1874), appendix.
2. D.A. Chart, Preliminary Survey of the Ancient Monuments of Northern Ireland (Belfast, 1940), p 90.
3. Guidebook to Grey Abbey, County Down (HMSO, Belfast, 1964), p 12.
4. UAHS, Northern Gardens: Gardens and Parks of Outstanding Historic Interest in Northern Ireland (Belfast ND [1982]), p 5.
5. J. Howley, The Follies and Garden Buildings of Ireland (London, 1993), pp 205 and 242.
6. SMR: Down 11.10.
7. DOENI: Garden Archive D/051.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
I. Quality and survival of Interior
J. Setting
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Z. Rarity
X. Local Interest

Evaluation

This is a well house of probably 18th century date which remains largely intact, designed in a pseudo-medieval style incorporating what appears to be some moulded stonework of genuine medieval origin, erected over a well of medieval ecclesiastical association close to the remains of a ruined 12th century Cistercian abbey, and forming a picturesque and evocative feature in the 18th century demesne of Rosemount House.