What is recorded here

Half a mile west of the mainland, two small cairns still hold coins and flower remains above a shallow pothole that people have called St Brendan's Well since at least 1684. The stones sit just above the tide line on a flat rock shelf, small enough to touch with both hands, yet they have survived being misnamed, renamed and visited on the wrong saint's day. What is certain is that the sea has never taken them back.

Just above HWM on N shore of the island. The well (GA050-010001-) and the 'Monument' (GA050-010003-) indicated on OS 6-inch maps as being dedicated to St Brendan are locally associated with St Columcille and visited on his day (pers. comm. T. Robinson). The well consists of a small smooth rounded pothole (D c. 0.3m) on a flat rock outcrop. A semicircular drystone cairn (GA050-010002-) (D 1.2m, H 1.2m) has been built around its S side. Circa 1m SE is the 'Monument': this is a similar cairn, D-shaped in plan (D 1.2m, H 1.45m). Coins and the remains of flowers are visible amongst the stones of both cairns. The well known locally as St Brendan's Well (GA050-010004-) lies 50m to W just below HWM, and consists of a natural pothole (D 0.4m) with an irregular cairn (GA050-010005-) (H 1.2m) above it (info. T. Robinson). Noted by O'Flaherty in 1684 as a 'place in memory of St. Brendan' (Hardiman 1846, 104). (Killanin 1954, 101; Killanin and Duignan 1967, 418) The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Galway Vol. I - West Galway'. Compiled by Paul Gosling (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1993). Date of upload: 12 August 2016

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