St Patricks Well - Carrigatoher

The eagle eyed among you might have spotted that I mentioned a big upcoming discovery. At that stage I thought I had discovered some "new" rock-art at a holy well known as St Patricks Well in the townland of Carrigatoher.

The possibly of some kind of rock art was brought to my attention by a follower of my facebook page https://www.facebook.com/Thetipperaryantiquarian/. Joann Hinz's roots go back to many areas that feature prominently on my page such as Townlough near Portroe (home of The Graves of the Leinstermen) and areas in Burgess / Kiladangan parishs. She sent me a link to some very interesting folklore from the recently uploaded Irish Folklore Commission information on duchas.ie.

www.duchas.ie/en/cbes/5162112/5155297
Armed with this sketch on my phone, I surveyed the holy well in the hope that I could find what seemed like very specific information regarding rock-art. After a good look around at the well I was about to leave when I sat and had one last look at the well and anything that might out of the ordinary. The duchas.ie information mentions that the stone was in a ditch but there was nothing obvious like that to see, so I examined the site for anything that seemed out of the ordinary. That's when I had the light-bulb moment when I thought that the stones at the swing gate into the well enclosure seemed out of proportion with their function. They were also the only part of the wall that was unrendered.

I had a look at these two stones and excitably noted the unusual depressions on the larger of the two stones. Immediately I thought these must be the marks of St Patricks Fingers / the rock-art. I also thought that there was one cupmark on the smaller stone. I took a number of photos and went away relatively happy that I had found some new rock-art. There was a nagging doubt as the depressions weren't as "cup-like" as other places that I had seen them. Basically these depressions are pretty vertical while cup marks should have a smoother slope out of the bottom of the cup. Imagine a cylinder versus a dome in terms of slope.

I went back the following night and took some night time photos to further enhance the cup like shape of the depressions. I sent these photos on to two rock-art experts that I know online and both were very positive (as much as you can be from photographs only) and said that there was a great chance that they were cupmarks.

I even went back another evening to get some photos around sunset to try and illuminate the markings in a different light.

Next I sent on the photos to the local National Monuments Service archaeologist who was again very positive from the photos that they could be cupmarks. He inspected but unfortunately as below he thinks that they are "water solution holes" or maybe had even been drilled for some reason. I was obviously disappointed by this result but relieved in one way as I was concerned by shape of the cup-marks as to whether they were real or not.


Following this I do wonder whether these are St Patricks Finger marks mentioned in the Irish Folklore Commission? It does seem to be quite a coincidence that marks such as these should be in the location mentioned.
On the other hand they don't look anything like the sketch provided. So does this mean this rock-art is still out there waiting to be found? Could it have been moved or covered in the locality?
There are two other holy wells in the vicinity (One is a St Brigids Well and in a different townland, the other also a St Patricks Well and also in a different townland) could there be markings at either of those wells?
As always I seem to leave things with more questions than answers but I suppose that is what makes the whole area of history and archaeology so interesting.


Archaeology.ie has this to say about the Well - I've highlighted the updated section following my "discovery".


"Situated on flat pasture in an upland area. A natural spring well of rectangular plan (0.75m x 0.65m x 0.9m H) enclosed by a stone canopy set into the S face of a low rise of ground with a stream running out from the S face of the well. No votive offerings are visible. According to the OS Letters the well was visited on St Patrick's Day and every Saturday for its curative powers (O'Flanagan 1930, vol. 3, 115). Stone on top of wall beside swing gate has several holes on the upper surface which appear to be water solution holes rather than prehistoric rock art as suggested in the folklore recored in the National Folklore Schools' Collection. In 1938 the following folklore regarding this stone was recorded in Carrick National School; ’At St. Patrickswell in the townsland of Ballywilliam in the Parish of Youghlalarra is a stone on which there are marks. I (the writer) was always told as a young lad that the marks were those of St Patrick's fingers. The stone is from 5 to 6 ft in length & 2 to 3 ft high. I do not know how wide it is as it is built into the fence. The marks are somewhat like the following, all on the face but I could see without the ditch that there are some of top. They look like Bronze age markings’ (pers. comm. Joann Hinz; The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0535, Page 472; www.duchas.ie/en/cbes/5162112/5155297)"