Struell Wells
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The Struell Wells ( Irish Toibreacha an tSruthail ) are holy springs near Saul, east of Downpatrick in County Down in Northern Ireland . The Struell Wells were a popular place of pilgrimage between the 16th century and the 1840s. The once pagan place of worship was strongly associated with the Irish national saint St. Patrick at the time .
The earliest written mention of the square was between 1302 and 1306. None of the surviving buildings was built earlier than 1600. There are four sources; two of them are covered. Two were once famous in Europe as bathhouses (for men and women). The eye (healing) spring and the drinking fountain are said to have been blessed by Saint Patrick. A small cross-slab is built into the wall of the drinking fountain.
The water from a lonely rocky valley flows through underground channels to the square next to the ruins of St. Patrick's Chapel. The church was built around 1750 to replace an earlier one that apparently never was finished. Walter Harris writes in 1744: “Large crowds of poor and rich people meet here for Midsummer's Eve and on the Friday before Lammas ( Lughnasadh August 1st). Some in the hope of maintaining health, others to do penance exercises. "
See also
literature
- Walter L. Brenneman, Mary G. Brenneman: Crossing the circle at the holy wells of Ireland . University Press of Virginia, Charlottesville, VI 1995, ISBN 0-8139-1548-1 .
- Arthur Gribben: Holy wells and sacred water sources in Britain and Ireland. An annotated bibliography . Garland, London 1992, ISBN 0-8153-0831-0
- Elizabeth Healy: In search of Ireland's holy wells . Wolfhound Press, Dublin 2001, ISBN 0-86327-865-5 .
- Patrick Logan: The holy wells of Ireland . Smythe Books, Gerrards Cross 1992, ISBN 0-86140-046-1 .
Web links
Coordinates: 54 ° 19 '26 " N , 5 ° 40' 36" W.