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'St. Cuan's Well' : Holy Well

TownlandCornamucklagh
CountyGalway
Grid RefM 790 406
GPSM 79030 40600 (9m)
Longitude8° 18' 55.48" W
Latitude53° 24' 54.42" N
Nearest TownRoscommon (24.9 Km)
OS Sheet47
UTM zone29U
UTM x545500.92556886
UTM y5918668.6214118
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Visit Notes

Sunday, 29th August 2004

This was the second place I went to today simply because I saw the sign. Again I was hoping for a bullaun stone, but there wasn't one. Nevertheless this is a wonderful place ... and a very old one.

Walking across the field I could see the low stone wall that surrounds the well and as I got closer it became evident that the well is inside a small enclosure. This round and defined by a ditch surrounding a raised platform with a lip around the edge. It actually looks like a barrow at first sight. The lip is studded with stones and was presumably a wall at some point and the are other areas of stones that indicate there may have been some small structures inside the wall too.

Next to the wall around the well is a graveslab with a crucifixion carved on it.

The well is about 1.5m deep and was dry when I visited. I assumed that this was because of a deep drainage ditch running through the field about 50m away, but I was soon to learn that this was not the case. As I was taking some photographs and enjoying the serenity of this location a local man, who has been coming to this spot for 60 years, approached. I let him say his prayers and struck up a conversation, asking if the well was always dry. Apparently it does have water in the winter and a pattern is held here in mid-October.

He told me all sorts of local tales, but the most interesting one involved the drain. The locals used to use it as a footpath during the penal times if there was snow on the ground so that they wouldn't leave footprints across the fields. When he was a child there was a ragtree on the edge of the platform, but that fell a long time ago. There is another thorn tree now, but the custom has not been taken up with this one.

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