Introducing Holy Wells!
Hidden Heritage of Holy Wells
Welcome to our first blog post!
Background
Hidden Heritage of Holy Wells HHHW is a newly-formed research collaboration based at Queen’s University Belfast who are interested in the holy wells of Ireland, Britain and beyond. The team consists of geographers, archaeologists and linguists from across the University. We are interested in investigating how research from our respective research areas in onomastics, cartography, archaeology and history (among others) can contribute to the wider understanding of the holy wells in the landscapes of the island of Ireland.
Who are we?
Frances Kane is a Research Fellow in the School of Arts, English and Languages at Queen’s University, Belfast currently working on establishing the linguistic origins of townland and other historical names as part of the The Northern Ireland Place-Name Project. Access the project database at www.placenamesni.org and follow us on twitter @placenamesni
Keith Lilley is Professor of Historical Geography at Queen’s and is especially interested in maps and landscapes, and using these to explore how heritage provides a bridge between past, present and future. He coordinates Queen’s new Heritage Hub, which is a focus for connecting academic, professional and community research on all aspects of cultural heritage (heritagehub.ac.uk).
Dr Rachel Tracey is Lead Researcher at the Centre for Data Digitisation & Analysis. She is an historical archaeologist with research interests in material culture and cultural identity in early-modern and contemporary Britain and Ireland, particularly in relation to contested heritage, commemoration in divided societies and public engagement.
What we have planned
We are firm believers in the value of community engagement for this type of research, and we aim to recruit the wider public to help with our efforts to locate, record and research holy wells, and have planned contributions to a number of events across the coming months:
Festival of Archaeology (July 2020): “Well, well well!”
National Heritage week (August 2020)
European Heritage Open Days (September 2020)
Festival of Archaeology Part II (October 2020)
Watch this space!!!