What is recorded here

St. Kevins Well is a holy spring in Ballyman, County Dublin, where pilgrims once tied rags to surrounding trees before medieval ruins sixty metres away. The water still flows beside the County Brook, dividing Dublin and Wicklow, while human longing echoes through the valley slope. What the well healed or who tended it has faded, but the act of tying cloth to a tree and drinking from a named spring remains a clear shape of faith.

St. Kevin's Well lies on the S facing slope of a valley in the townland of Ballyman, parish of Oldconnaught. The well, or spring, rises at the foot of a bank on the N side of the County Brook which divides Dublin from Co. Wicklow. Medieval church ruins (DU028-002002-) lies 60m to the E. Holy well described in 1900 as follows; 'Near the church is a well, called after St. Kevin, and surrounded by trees on which, until lately, the rags hung by pilgrims to its healing waters were to be seen' (Anon. 1900, 187). Holy well was still venerated in the 1950's (Ó Danachair 1958, 84). The 1837 Ordnance Survey Letters recorded the site as a blessed well (Herity 2001, 33). See attached photograph of St. Kevin's Well, Ballyman taken by Patrick Healy in 1979, from the Patrick Healy Collection accessible online at https://hdl.handle.net/10599/2621, © South Dublin Libraries, Local Studies Collection, County Library, Town Centre, Tallaght, Dublin 24 Compiled by Geraldine Stout and Padraig Clancy Revised by: Caimin O'Brien Date of revised upload: 21 April 2023

St. Kevin's Well is associated with St. Kevin, a 6th-century Irish monk and hermit known for his ascetic life and connection to several holy sites in Ireland. The well is traditionally believed to have healing properties, particularly for ailments of the eyes and skin, and may have been a site of pilgrimage and seasonal rituals.

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