St Patrick's Well
Photo: Smirkybec · CC BY-SA 4.0
Ritual site - holy well

St Patrick's Well

Holy well in Finglas, Dublin, Ireland.

  • AccessNot confirmed
  • National MonumentNot recorded
  • 1760In the record
  • Folklore3 quotes
  • PhotoWikimedia Commons
Co. Dublin53.38907, -6.30353
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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
  • Date or period mentioned1760

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

This is a natural spring enclosed within a railing and embellished with a monument to St Patrick, murals and a grotto. A stone-lined bath in the front may have been built in the 1760's when the well was developed as a spa (Daly 1957, 20; Ó Danachair 1958, 76).

Full archaeological record 148 words

This is a natural spring enclosed within a railing and embellished with a monument to St Patrick, murals and a grotto. A stone-lined bath in the front may have been built in the 1760's when the well was developed as a spa (Daly 1957, 20; Ó Danachair 1958, 76). This was a station well according to the Ordnance Survey Name Books. The waters were thought to cure sore eyes and inveterate ulcers. Still venerated.

Daly (1957, 20) recorded the following details about this well; 'Near Finglas village was another St. Patrick's well. A short time prior to 176o a stone arch was built over it, on account of cures which it had effected and for many years people visited there for the curing of sore eyes and inveterate ulcers. Patients applied rags dipped in the water to the affected part as well as drinking some of the water'.

References

  • Date of revised upload: 14 April 2023

Archaeological Survey of Ireland, National Monuments Service (CC BY 4.0) · Compiled by Geraldine Stout. It describes the site as it was when surveyed.

Folklore and traditions

The waters were thought to cure sore eyes and inveterate ulcers.
As recorded by the Archaeological Survey · a tradition, not a fact
A short time prior to 176o a stone arch was built over it, on account of cures which it had effected and for many years people visited there for the curing of sore eyes and inveterate ulcers.
As recorded by the Archaeological Survey · a tradition, not a fact
Patients applied rags dipped in the water to the affected part as well as drinking some of the water'.
As recorded by the Archaeological Survey · a tradition, not a fact
Healing wells and curesOfferings and rag treesSt Patrick

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