water pump

Freestanding cast-iron water pump, erected c. 1900. Comprising banded shaft, moulded spout, fluted cap with finial over, and with curved 'cow tail' pumping arm. Set on grass margin adjacent to country road. Located in the rural countryside to the south-east of Ballyshannon and to the west of Belleek.

A typical late nineteenth or early twentieth-century cast-iron water pump, of a standard design encountered throughout rural Ireland, although relatively rare in Donegal. The appearance of this functional object is enlivened in its detailing such as the banded shaft, elegant curved ‘cow tail handle, and by the decorative fluted cap, which add aesthetic interest to this utilitarian object. Water pumps such as this once played an important social and functional role providing a communal water source in the period before the development of the mains water supply during the first half of the twentieth century. This cast-iron pump now serves as an attractive piece of street furniture, adding social and historic interest to the rural landscape to the south-east of Ballyshannon.