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Ritual site - holy well

Bridget's Well

Holy well in Ballymacahara, County Wicklow, Ireland.

  • AccessNot confirmed
  • National MonumentNot recorded
  • DateNot stated
  • Folklore1 quote
  • PhotoWanted
Ballymacahara, Co. Wicklow53.01067, -6.12207
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Unofficial guide. Not the National Monuments Service, the OPW, Fáilte Ireland or the landowner. Disclaimer

At a glance

  • TypeRitual site - holy well

What to look for

  • Offerings left

Picked out from the Archaeological Survey description below.

Can you visit?

  • No source says it is open to the public.Most monuments in Ireland stand on private farmland.
  • Ask the landowner before crossing fields, close gates, leave the stones as you find them.Visiting responsibly
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History and description

Recorded in the Ordnance Survey letters of 1838-40 as ‘in the townland of Ballymacahara they shew a holy well called Tubber Brighde (or Bridget’s Well). It is a strong spring gushing from the foot of a little bank, having two old ash trees growing over it.

Full archaeological record 100 words

Recorded in the Ordnance Survey letters of 1838-40 as ‘in the townland of Ballymacahara they shew a holy well called Tubber Brighde (or Bridget’s Well). It is a strong spring gushing from the foot of a little bank, having two old ash trees growing over it. It is still resorted to for the cure of pains in the limbs, bowels, etc., and the briars and thorns over it exhibit in tolerable abundance the raggy offerings of its votaries’ (O’Flanagan 1928, 248). Today a few upright boulders and a clump of trees marks the site of the filled in holy well.

Archaeological Survey of Ireland, National Monuments Service (CC BY 4.0) · Compiled by Caimin O'Brien · Updated 16 November 2012. It describes the site as it was when surveyed.

Folklore and traditions

It is still resorted to for the cure of pains in the limbs, bowels, etc., and the briars and thorns over it exhibit in tolerable abundance the raggy offerings of its votaries’ (O’Flanagan 1928, 248).
As recorded by the Archaeological Survey · a tradition, not a fact
Healing wells and curesOfferings and rag trees

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      Around Bridget's Well

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