20/05/2025
St Augustine's Well, Lough Atalia
Not too far a walk outside of Galway City, this might look familiar to many, especially to those who may take the bus to Galway regularly, just before you pull into the bus station, this is seen on the way in.
On Lough Atalia road you can fin St Augustine's Well, the enchanting wee area , can be found with two crosses, and a tree that hangs over the scene with rags tied to the trees. Why do people do so?
Well I wrote this about Holy Wells, a it's rituals:
Rags and Ribbons on the tree at Tobernalt (The Holy Well)
The tying the tying of rags or ribbons still
endures today, the belief that when one ties
a rag or ribbon taken from their clothing,
and ties it to a tree, their ailment or burden
will pass onto it and will disappear as the
rag rots away.
There goes a story that a man went and
grabbed all the ribbons off the tree, and as
he passed the house of a neighbour whom
he had quarrel with, dropped all the
ribbons on the road outside his house, the
neighbour on seeing what he thought
rubbish, went to tidy it up and as soon as
he had gathered all the rags and ribbons he
was immediately possessed of all the
maladies they contained.
Such tales are not uncommon in Ireland,
the placing of nail pairings or hair of a sick
person and placing it in a packet and
dropping it on the road so that whoever
picks it up, the illness or ailment will pass
to them.
Thus when you see rags on trees around holy wells they are not offerings, but riddanceâs. One hundred years ago, the act was accompanied by the words, "By the intercession of the Lord, I leave my portion of illness in this place.â
It's interesting that this place marks only one well, when in fact it has three, all three are marked as St Augustine's Well. However:
"A Fr McErlean (1904-5, 146) records that only the SW well was dedicated to âSt Augustineâs Wellâ whereas the two N wells were dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary and St John the Baptist (1904, 52). This statement would appear to be supported by the fact that only one well, that at the SW, is indicated on the map of this area among the Erasmus Smith papers surveyed by Thomas Sherrard in 1785. In addition, only one St Augustineâs well is referenced in the index to the mid-seventeenth century Pictorial Map of Galway (NUI Galway, Hardiman Library; Synopsis, in orientem, 3, (St. Augustineâs well, on the southern side of the hill) S. Augustini fons in australi latere montis). However, Loganâs map of Galway, dated 1818, shows three wells side by side and these are named as St Augustineâs Wells (Hardiman 1820, facing p. 279). Only two of the three wells indicated on the OS 1st ed. 6-inch sheet were named on the OS 1:2500 survey plan of 1893-5, one to the NE and one to the SW." As seen in the maps below.
Source: Buildings of Ireland
The Cure at the Well, this case goes like:
"According to James Hardimanâs notes, examinations were conducted of witnesses including both members of the clergy and laypeople of the town which affirm that a âspeedy amendmentâ had happened to then fourteen-year-old boy, Patricke Lynche (/Patrick Lynch) at the well on the 11th of June in 1673. Faced with a vomiting disease which was believed by physicians of the time to be fatal, Lynche was supposed to have seen the âLord Jesus Christ and his blessed mother and a multitude of brave winged birdesâvi,vii. Following on from this, it is said that he drank from the well three times a day for nine days before being cured of the disease. In his notes, he had addressed that the investigative commission established had altered the language to remove the mystical from their investigation. They (the commission) would water down the testimonies of witnesses using words such as âamendmentâ and âextraodinaireâ in the place of testimonies referencing the well being both a âcureâ and âmiraculousâviii."
Source: https://galwaycivictrust.ie/index.php/2024/09/05/a-brief-history-of-st-augustines-well/
A carved stone on the site does state, that the site has been noted for many of its miraculous cure of eye and ear ailments.
