Struell Wells

The Struell Wells ( Irish: Toibreacha a tSruthail ) are saints sources near Saul, east of Downpatrick, County Down in Northern Ireland. The Struell Wells was a popular place of pilgrimage from the 16th century and the 1840s. The once pagan worship was strongly associated at this time with the Irish patron saint St. Patrick.

The earliest written mention of the place made ​​1302-1306. None of the surviving buildings were built earlier than 1600. There are four sources; two of which are covered. Two were once famous in Europe as bathhouses (for men and women). The eyes ( healing ) source and the drinking fountain to have been blessed by Saint Patrick. A smaller cross- slab is installed in the wall of the drinking fountain.

The water from a lonely rocky valley flows through underground channels to the square next to the ruins of the St. Patrick 's Chapel. The church was built in 1750 to replace an earlier version which is never finished apparently. Walter Harris writes in 1744: " Large crowds of poor and rich people meet here to Midsummer's Eve and the Friday before Lammas ( Lughnasadh August 1 ). Some on the maintenance of health to penance in the hope of others. "