holy wells

holy wells, in Ireland as elsewhere, were a common feature of popular tradition. Visitors could seek supernatural protection, relief from illness, or other benefits by drinking the water, by performing one or more circuits round the site, possibly reciting prayers or charms, and often leaving behind them a piece of cloth or other token. On the feast day of the saint to whom it was dedicated, a well might be the focus of more elaborate festivities at a pattern. The origin of most wells is obscure. Some may represent survivals from the pre‐Christian era, later made acceptable by the attachment of a saint's name and a veneer of orthodox ritual; others may be associated with the sites of early Christian churches. But there are also examples of wells acquiring a reputation as holy only in the 18th or 19th centuries, as circumstances led the loose general body of belief and custom to attach itself to a new site.