The well appears on the first edition of the Ordnance Survey 6-inch map, a detailed cartographic record from the 19th century, but despite this documentation, modern attempts to locate the site have proved unsuccessful. Whether it has been filled in, built over, or simply lost to time and vegetation, the well has joined the ranks of Ireland’s disappeared sacred sites.

Holy wells like this one were integral to Irish spiritual life for centuries, serving as focal points for religious rituals, pilgrimages, and healing traditions that often blended Christian and pre-Christian practices. These natural springs were typically dedicated to particular saints and visited on specific feast days, with devotees performing rounds of prayer, leaving votive offerings, or seeking cures for various ailments. The loss of such sites represents not just a physical absence in the landscape but a severing of connections to centuries of folk tradition and communal religious practice.

The documentation of this lost well comes from the Archaeological Survey of County Donegal, a comprehensive catalogue compiled in 1983 that attempted to record the county’s field antiquities from prehistoric times through to the 17th century. The survey, undertaken by a team of archaeologists led by Brian Lacey, serves as a crucial record of sites that might otherwise be forgotten entirely; in this case, preserving at least the knowledge that a holy well once existed at Carricknamanna, even if its exact location and the traditions associated with it have been lost to living memory.