Well, Kiltullagh, Co. Galway

Co. Galway |

Utility Structures

Well, Kiltullagh, Co. Galway

In the pastureland of Kiltullagh, a wedge of poured concrete sits around something far older.

The concrete enclosure, oriented northwest to southeast and opening out to the east, is a relatively recent intervention, but peer into the northwestern corner and the original structure announces itself: a circular drystone surround, dry-laid stone fitted without mortar in the old way, roughly two and a half metres across. Two different centuries of care for the same patch of ground occupy the same few square metres.

Holy wells of this kind are scattered across Connacht, typically associated with a patron saint and visited on a specific feast day for patterns, the local term for devotional rounds that might include prayer, the tying of cloth offerings to nearby branches, and the drinking or collecting of water believed to have curative properties. The well at Kiltullagh follows this broader tradition, though the notes available on it are modest. What can be said with certainty is that someone, at some point in the modern era, judged the site worth enclosing properly in concrete, giving it a wedge-shaped wall five metres long and nearly two and a half metres wide, with steps cut to allow access. That the older drystone ring survived beneath the newer structure, visible at the northwest, suggests the builders worked around rather than over what was already there.

The site sits in ordinary pastureland beside a road, which makes it relatively easy to locate and approach. The steps down to the well are the main thing to watch for; the enclosure is not large, and the older stonework at the base of the northwestern wall rewards a closer look once you are inside it.

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Pete F
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