'St Patrick's Well' : Holy Well
Visit Notes
Sunday, 14th July 2002
When I left Castlestrange (County Roscommon) I decided to head straight home. Nothing was going to compete with that today!
However, I happened to drive past this well signposted and obviously popular well and so I felt I had to see what it was about. When I got there I realised that I had actually planned a visit here, but to the cross (the cross is the only thing marked on the OS).
To reach the well you have to walk through an enclosure that houses a very primeval looking pond. Once through this you pass a couple of bottle of holy water and a small, new bullaun and enter the main area. This is amazing. Services are still obviously held here as there is a modern altar with a frame for a canopy, which is surrounded by benches made from logs.
To one side of the altar is the well, a small (dry) hole in the ground, in a little grotto. Mounted above this is the cross and a horrible painted statue of St. Patrick.
The most amazing thing about the area are the huge trees, each of them decorated with icon like images. These popular, Christian wells simply ooze echoes of a pagan past, I'm beginning to like them more and more.
Like this monument
Marked Sites
Random Gazetteer
A Selection of Other Holy Wells
About Coordinates Displayed
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This is an explanation of (and a bit of a disclaimer for) the coordinates I provide. Where a GPS figure is given this is the master for all other coordinates. According to my Garmin these are quite accurate. Where there is no GPS figure the 6 figure grid reference is master for the others. This may not be very accurate as it could have come from the OS maps and could have been read by eye. Consequently, all other cordinates are going to have inaccuracies. The calculation of Longitude and Latitude uses an algorithm that is not 100% accurate. The long/lat figures are used as a basis for calculating the UTM & ITM coordinates. Consequently, UTM & ITM coordinates are slightly out. UTM is a global coordinate system - Universal Transverse Mercator - that is at the core of the GPS system. ITM is the new coordinate system - Irish Transverse Mercator - that is more accurate and more GPS friendly than the Irish Grid Reference system. This will be used on the next generation of Irish OS maps. |
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