What is recorded here

St. Patrick’s Well in County Galway lost its sanctity before it lost its shape, fading from living memory by 1838 and from visible earth by 1984. What remains is a low mound of field-clearance stones beside a bullaun stone, perhaps marking the place where water once gave back what people gave it. The well may have drunk up devotion until there was none left to pour, leaving only a circle of stones to outline its absence.

In reclaimed pastureland. Named ‘St Patrick’s Well’ on the 1838 and 1946 editions of the 6-inch OS maps. According to the OS Letters, this holy well was said to be ‘fast losing its sanctity’ by 1838(O’Flanagan 1927, Vol. 2, 49). On inspection in 1984, no visible surface trace of it survived. Its site was marked by a low subcircular mound (c. 8m E-W, 6m N-S, H 0.2m) of loose field-clearance stones. A bullaun stone (GA118-060001-) lies immediately to its E. Compiled by: Galway Archaeological Survey, UCG Date of upload: 18 April 2023

St. Patrick’s Well is associated with the patron saint of Ireland, St. Patrick, and like many such wells, was traditionally believed to have curative properties, particularly for ailments of the eyes and general health. The well’s declining sanctity noted in 1838 reflects broader 19th-century secularization and land reclamation trends in Ireland.

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