St Anne's Well

Round-headed vault over holy well, built c.1850. Pointed arch rubble stone opening covered by earthen and rubble stone mound. Coursed rubble limestone to interior, floor covered, spring not visible. Rubble boulders outlining entrance to well. Situated to north-east side of pond and close to 'Roman Tower'.

Benjamin Lee Guinness and his brother Arthur bought Thornhill Estate in 1835, renaming it St Anne's after this holy well adjacent to the Naniken River. The well was situated outside the boundaries of the original estate, and was subsumed into the estate when Guinness's acquired a portion of Bettyville townland in 1848. The estate was considerably expanded by Benjamin and his successor, Lord Ardilaun, in a series of acquisitions over the remaining decades of the nineteenth century. This attractive rustic and small scale monument was constructed over a natural spring, a supposedly ancient well, which was one of two associated with the early Christian site at Raheny and may have had connections to the goddess Anu. The enclosure was built using similar stone to that used in other rustic follies on the estate, and may have been constructed for Benjamin, adding emphasis to his penchant for romantic 'sham' antiquities on the estate.