Holy well, Clogher Beg, Co. Sligo

Co. Sligo |

Holy Sites & Wells

Holy well, Clogher Beg, Co. Sligo

On the northern shore of Lough Gill in County Sligo, where the treeline meets the water, a small spring feeds quietly into the lake through a channel barely wide enough to step across.

What makes it worth noticing is not its scale but its persistence: strips of cloth are still tied to the exposed roots of the beech trees growing beside it, the traditional practice of leaving votive rags, or clooties, at a holy well. The gesture is ancient, and here it continues.

The well itself is modest in construction. A natural spring has been enclosed by a roughly rectangular drystone wall, a simple technique of stacking unmortered stone to form a border or lining, measuring about two metres along its longer axis and just over a metre wide. The base is sand and gravel, and a short outflow channel runs from the southern corner of that wall down into the lake. The beech trees immediately to the east and south have grown so long beside the well that their roots now run along two sides of the wall, making the structure and the trees feel like a single thing. Writing in 1882, the antiquarian W. G. Wood-Martin attributed the well to St. Connell, whose feast day falls on the 2nd of June. Little else is recorded about the saint in connection with this site, but the association of a spring with a named saint and a specific calendar date is a pattern found across Ireland, often reflecting pre-Christian water veneration that was absorbed gradually into Christian practice.

The well sits in mature deciduous forest in the townland of Clogher Beg, tucked into a hollow on a south-west-facing slope close to the lakeshore. The rags on the roots, weathered to varying degrees, suggest that people still find their way here, most likely around the feast day in early June.

Rated 0 out of 5

Visitor Notes

Review type for post source and places source type not found
Added by
Picture of Pete F
Pete F
IrishHistory.com is passionate about helping people discover and connect with the rich stories of their local communities.
Please use the form below to submit any photos you may have of Holy well, Clogher Beg, Co. Sligo. We're happy to take any suggested edits you may have too. Please be advised it will take us some time to get to these submissions. Thank you.
Name
Email
Message
Upload images/documents
Maximum file size: 100 MB
If you'd like to add an image or a PDF please do it here.

Advertisement