Well, Fairview, Co. Dublin
Co. Dublin |
Utility Structures
Some places are remarkable precisely because nothing remains of them.
A well once known as the Two Sisters Well stood somewhere within what is now Corkagh Demesne, a public park managed by Dublin County Council, and today there is no visible trace of it whatsoever. No stone surround, no hollow in the ground, no marker of any kind. It exists now only as a name in the record, which in its own way makes it more intriguing than many a well that has survived intact.
Holy wells and named wells were once a common feature of the Irish landscape, often serving as focal points for local devotion, communal gathering, or simply as practical water sources with enough local significance to acquire a name and, sometimes, a legend. The name "Two Sisters" belongs to a pattern found at several Irish wells, typically suggesting a founding story involving two women, often saints or figures from early Christian tradition, though the particular story attached to this well has not been recorded in the surviving notes. The well was located on the grounds of Corkagh Demesne, a landed estate whose parkland now forms one of the larger green spaces in County Dublin. At some point, the field boundaries that once defined the well's immediate setting were removed, and with them went the last physical context that might have helped a visitor locate the spot.
The demesne is accessible as a public park, and the grounds are worth exploring for their own sake, with open grassland, woodland walks, and the River Camac running through the estate. But anyone hoping to locate the Two Sisters Well specifically should be prepared to find nothing. The research notes compiled by Geraldine Stout are clear on this point: there is no surface trace. The well's approximate location within the park is not precisely documented in the available record, and the removal of the old field boundaries has erased the spatial clues that might once have guided a visitor. What remains is the name itself, held in the archive, waiting for whatever further investigation might one day bring it back into focus.
