County: Kilkenny Site name: Lady’s Well, Thomastown
Sites and Monuments Record No.: KK028–039 Licence number: 06E0576
Author: Brenda O’Meara, Margaret Gowen & Co. Ltd, 27 Merrion Square, Dublin 2.
Site type: Possible holy well
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 658207m, N 642226m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.528284, -7.142157
A test assessment was carried out within the boundary of a proposed new development at Lady’s Well, Thomastown. Work was carried out on 26 and 27 June 2006. Six test-trenches were excavated. Five of these were opened across the site, the sixth was opened around the site of a holy well recorded at the site.
The Lady’s Well was visible prior to assessment, forming a small opening at the base of the western boundary wall of the development site. Water from the well was seen to pass along a small water channel and empty into a partially stone-lined millstream that crossed the site from north to south.
The millstream will be unaffected by the proposed construction works. It is intended that the stream should remain open and form a feature of the development. It is a requirement of the planning conditions that the area of the well and its associated buffer remain, in addition to the amenity area associated with the development.
An area measuring 11.6m north–south by 5m was examined around the well. In order to avoid undue disturbance of the integrity of the small water channel, no sections were dug across the feature.
The well outlet measured 0.44m in width and 0.42m in depth and was constructed from rough-hewn mortared masonry with a moderately rounded limestone lintel. Running for a length of 20.75m, a channel carries water from the well outlet to the millstream. The channel was filled with sub-angular and rounded stones and pebbles over much of its length, but it remained open for a length of 1.42m at the water outlet and appeared to be partially stone-lined with small angular stones set in hard, light-grey gritty mortar. The channel was 0.4–0.45m in width with vertical sides and an uneven base.
A rough stone surround at the well outlet appeared to be modern in origin and was perhaps created as a result of removing stones from the water channel at this location. The stone within the water channel was introduced in the 1970s by the landowner. Local history suggests that the well was initially located in a field to the west of Lady’s Well Street, and that the water was subsequently piped to the roadside on the eastern side of the street.
