What is recorded here

St. Munchin's well in Coolcashin, County Kilkenny, is a dry oval stone chamber set into a south-facing slope beside a medieval church. It is no longer open to the sky because a heavy flat lintel covers the entrance, yet the stone steps and narrow passage still point to the hidden basin below. People may have climbed those steps for centuries, carrying water or leaving gifts before the well closed. The chamber remains tucked under the hill, waiting for someone to lift the stone and remember what the water gave back.

Built into a S-facing slope, just below the crest of a hill, in rolling grassland, c. 50m NE of a stream which flows into a river c. 400m to the E. It is located 18m W of the NW angle of graveyard (KK009-019002-) wall which encloses a medieval church (KK009-019001-). A now dry, roughly oval stone-lined well (dims. 0.86m NE-SW; 1.14m NW-SE; H 0.92m) with a stone-lined access passage (L c. 1m; H 0.33m) to the SE with steps down to the well. The access is now largely covered by a large flat lintel (dims. 1.2m x 0.57m; T 0.1m). It is mentioned in the OS Letters (1839) as the 'well belonging to this Church lay twenty yards to the west of it, but it is now closed up' (O'Flanagan ed. 1930, vol. 1, 100-1 (34)). It is known locally as St. Munchin's well. Compiled by: Jean Farrelly Date of upload: 23 May 2018

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