What is recorded here

Holy well in Ballyhoolahan East stood fifty yards south of the burial ground when Bowman recorded it in 1934, though rounds had already stopped and its exact spot had slipped from memory. Mrs Vaughan still remembered coins or ribbons on a tree and neighbourhood payments in May and on 4 August, the feast of St. Miodhnat, suggesting the water belonged to that saint and the village kept its own quiet calendar around it. A marked well near the burial ground on the 1937 map may preserve the place now, but the living detail is the discontinued ritual: a local devotion that outlived its participants and waited to be remembered.

Bowman (1934, 490) recorded holy well in J. Vaughan's, 50 yds S of burial ground (14542). Rounds had been discontinued there prior to Bowman's (ibid.) inspection though Mrs Vaughan remembered votive offerings on tree and rounds being paid during May and 4th day of August. 'This must have been Aug. 4th, the feast day of St. Miodhnat, to whom the well must have been dedicated' (ibid.). Exact location not known. Unnamed well, marked on 1937 OS 6-inch map c. 100m S of this burial ground, may indicate location of holy well. The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Cork. Volume 4: North Cork' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 2000). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Date of upload/revision: 14 January 2009

The holy well in Ballyhoolahan East is associated with local traditions of votive offerings, though the specific saint or cure linked to the site is not clearly identified. Prior to the 1930s, it appears to have been a place of ritual activity, with offerings left on a nearby tree.

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