Holy well, Colvinstown, Co. Wicklow

Co. Wicklow |

Holy Sites & Wells

Holy well, Colvinstown, Co. Wicklow

Most holy wells in Ireland were visited for their water, drawn upon for cures, blessed and drunk.

This one, set into the northwest slope of Colvinstown hill in County Wicklow, was specifically noted as not used for drinking, on account of its location inside a graveyard. That distinction, recorded in the Ordnance Survey Name Books, is a small but telling detail: the well was recognised as something worth marking and naming, yet the usual ritual of drinking from it had been set aside, presumably out of concern about proximity to the dead.

The well itself is a modest feature. Measured during a survey in 1945, the pool is roughly circular, about 1.2 metres across east to west and slightly narrower north to south. Along its eastern edge, a semi-circular corbelled wall was constructed, corbelling being a technique in which stones are laid in overlapping courses to form a curved or vaulted structure without mortar. This kind of careful stonework suggests the well was at some point deliberately enclosed or protected, even if its practical use for water was limited by its setting. Today it sits within the same graveyard, now surrounded by a wire fence.

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