St. Jamess Well

Marked 'St. James's Well' on the 1835 and 1939 'OS 6-inch' maps. It is a rectangular pool lined with large roughly dressed blocks, four or five stones high in some places and without mortar (ASI field notes, 1966). Patron day was held here at start of twentieth century. Various references to traditions and legends associated with it in the Irish Folklore Commission Schools' Manuscripts (657-9), including one which notes that a woman with a disease tied a stone from the well around her neck and as the stone grew bigger she was cured of her disease (IFC Schools MSS 659, 16-17). Compiled by: Claire Breen Date of upload: 13 March 2012

Linked to St. James, the well is traditionally associated with healing and pilgrimage, common to many early Christian sites in Britain. The lack of mortar in its construction suggests an ancient, possibly pre-Norman origin, reflecting early monastic or folk religious practices.