From Saint to Wish: Mapping the Holy and Wishing Wells of Britain and Ireland

Holy wells are among the most widespread and least counted monuments of Britain and Ireland. I bring together the Republic of Ireland's official inventory of 3,025 holy wells (National Monuments Service), and holy wells mapped by volunteers in OpenStreetMap and entered in Wikidata for Northern Ireland, Britain and the Isle of Man (415 after a documented filter of 66,517 loosely matching features), and ask four questions: where they are recorded, whom they are dedicated to, what language their names are in, and what folk practices are recorded at them. The Republic has 43.6 recorded holy wells per 1,000 km²; Northern Ireland's open data show 2.7, a gap that measures the difference between an official survey and volunteer mapping rather than between traditions. Of 2,142 named Irish wells, 1,007 name a saint: Mary (162) and Patrick (161) are level, with Brigid third (113). 45% of the Irish names are in Irish, mostly in anglicised Ordnance Survey spellings. In the first 254 characters of 2,628 archaeological descriptions, the only part available as open data, 19% mention a cure, rags, offerings or a pattern; patterns and rounds are the commonest (12.2%), cures, above all of the eyes, next (5.3%), and coins appear at 14 wells. Holy wells lie close to churches and often share their saint. The name "wishing well", by contrast, belongs mostly to modern features and businesses. All shares from descriptions are lower bounds. Interactive version: https://tristan-hotham.github.io/holy-wells/. Data and code: https://github.com/Tristan-Hotham/holy-wells. Blog post: https://blog.tristanhotham.com/2026/10/27/holy-wells/.