Struell Wells
Encyclopedia
Struell Wells are a set of four holy well
Holy well
A holy well, or sacred spring, is a small body of water emerging from underground and revered either in a Pagan or Christian context, often both. Holy wells were frequently pagan sacred sites that later became Christianized. The term 'holy well' is commonly employed to refer to any water source of...

s in the townland
Townland
A townland or bally is a small geographical division of land used in Ireland. The townland system is of Gaelic origin—most townlands are believed to pre-date the Norman invasion and most have names derived from the Irish language...

 of Struell, 1.5 miles (2.4 km) east of Downpatrick
Downpatrick
Downpatrick is a medium-sized town about 33 km south of Belfast in County Down, Northern Ireland. It is the county town of Down with a rich history and strong connection to Saint Patrick. It had a population of 10,316 at the 2001 Census...

, County Down
County Down
-Cities:*Belfast *Newry -Large towns:*Dundonald*Newtownards*Bangor-Medium towns:...

, Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...

 (grid ref: J513442). The wells date from before the time of Saint Patrick
Saint Patrick
Saint Patrick was a Romano-Briton and Christian missionary, who is the most generally recognized patron saint of Ireland or the Apostle of Ireland, although Brigid of Kildare and Colmcille are also formally patron saints....

, and even today are used for people seeking cures. On Mid-Summer Eve (St John's Eve) and the Friday before Lammas
Lammas
In some English-speaking countries in the Northern Hemisphere, August 1 is Lammas Day , the festival of the wheat harvest, and is the first harvest festival of the year. On this day it was customary to bring to church a loaf made from the new crop...

, hundreds of pilgrims used to visit Struell. The earliest written reference to the wells is in 1306, but none of the surviving buildings is earlier than about 1600. Pilgrimages to the site are well documented from the 16th century to the 19th century. The site is managed by the Northern Ireland Environment Agency.

Features

A fast flowing stream runs in a south-easterly direction, partly underground, through the secluded, rocky valley, along which is ranged five buildings. The stream (in Irish
Irish language
Irish , also known as Irish Gaelic, is a Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family, originating in Ireland and historically spoken by the Irish people. Irish is now spoken as a first language by a minority of Irish people, as well as being a second language of a larger proportion of...

 sruthar) (or sruthail) gives the site its name. Farthest north-west is the shell of a mid-18th century church, apparently never finished. This must have replaced an earlier church, as a chapel was listed here in the 1306 taxation roll. In 1957 some fragments of 13th century stone windows were found, and probably belonged to this chapel. They can now be seen built in to the field wall next to the Drinking Well. Two of the four wells, set in a grassy hollow, are covered by small corbel
Corbel
In architecture a corbel is a piece of stone jutting out of a wall to carry any superincumbent weight. A piece of timber projecting in the same way was called a "tassel" or a "bragger". The technique of corbelling, where rows of corbels deeply keyed inside a wall support a projecting wall or...

led stone buildings, the others by larger stone structures. The Drinking Well, or Mother Well, is beehive-shaped and near the old church with a domed vault on wicker centering. The Eye Well is in the centre of the site, rectangular and with a pyramidal corbelled roof. To the south-east the stone roofed Men's Bathing Well (Men's Bath House) has a dressing room with seats leading to the bath room with its rectangular, sunken tank, which is reached by steps and filled with water supplied at floor level by a stone channel. There was a movable sluice to control the water flow out of the bath. A third room, at a lower level and with its own entrance, also with seats, served as dressing room to the adjoining Women's Bathing Well (Women's Bath House), now roofless. Here the water enters from a high level and the women must have had drenches rather than baths. The water leaves the bathhouse through a drain in the opposite wall. The smaller wells were used for bathing particular parts of the body, e.g. eyes, head, limbs etc, and a Foot Well is sometimes mentioned. In the larger wells the whole body was bathed. The bath houses now covering these wells are quite old, but were repaired by Lady Betty Cromwell in the 17th century.

The Wells and Saint Patrick

The site is traditionally associated with Saint Patrick, who is supposed to have come from nearby Saul
Saul, County Down
Saul is the name of a townland and civil parish in County Down, Northern Ireland.The townland lies to the east of Downpatrick and has strong links with Saint Patrick. It is claimed that when Saint Patrick came to Ireland in 432, strong currents swept his boat through the Strangford Lough tidal...

 to bathe in the waters. There is no historical evidence to support this connection. Saint Patrick is said to have blessed the wells. Legend has it that Saint Patrick used to spend a great part of the night standing in the water singing psalms and spiritual songs. These wells are almost certain to have been the fountain Slan mentioned in Saint Fiacc
Saint Fiacc
Saint Fiacc was a poet, the chief bishop of Leinster, and founder of two churches. His father, MacDara, was prince of the Hy-Bairrche in the country around Carlow, Ireland. His mother was sister of Dubhthach moccu Lughair, the Chief Ollam of Ireland, the first of Patrick's converts at Tara, and...

's hymn of Saint Patrick.

Pilgrims also came to the site to do penance
Penance
Penance is repentance of sins as well as the proper name of the Roman Catholic, Orthodox Christian, and Anglican Sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation/Confession. It also plays a part in non-sacramental confession among Lutherans and other Protestants...

. There is a stone Chair of Saint Patrick (or Bed of Saint Patrick), on the brow of the hill which, on the western side, overhangs the field with the wells. The "Bolster" stone has been disarranged. Around the stone chair is a roughly circular path over sharp stones called the Penitential Ring. There was a complicated penitential ritual involving circling all the wells and cairns, ending with the circling of the Penitential Ring on the knees seven times, sometimes carrying a large stone. The penitent was then seated on the Chair of Saint Patrick, in which he turned himself three times, being careful to turn from left to right. This was followed by prayers at the altar on the south sidewall of the ancient chapel and concluded with bathing in the wells.

History

Struell Wells has been a centre of pilgrimage since medieval times and a Papal Nuncio
Nuncio
Nuncio is an ecclesiastical diplomatic title, derived from the ancient Latin word, Nuntius, meaning "envoy." This article addresses this title as well as derived similar titles, all within the structure of the Roman Catholic Church...

writing in 1517 may have visited the site. In 1643, Father Edmund McCana noted that the stream had been brought into existence by the prayers of Saint Patrick. Walter Harris in 1744 gave an account of the pilgrimage activity at the wells. The pilgrimages continued into the 19th century, but rowdy disturbances led to the ecclesiastical authorities prohibiting devotional exercises and the site became less visited.

In 2006, Environment and Heritage Service officials were asked to explain why the wells were drying up and why two of the wells on the site no longer contained water. They said they were aware of the water flow problems and had remedial measures in place which would involve the excavation of some of the piping.

External links

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