St Mullin's
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St. Mullins Tigh Moling
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| Village | |
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 St. Mullins
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| Coordinates: 52°29′22″N 6°55′44″W / 52.489366°N 6.928851°WCoordinates: 52°29′22″N 6°55′44″W / 52.489366°N 6.928851°W | |
| Country | Ireland |
| Province | Leinster |
| County | Carlow |
| Irish Grid Reference | S7280838050 |
St. Mullins (Irish: Tigh Moling, formerly anglicised as Timoling or Tymoling) is a village on the eastern bank of the River Barrow in the south of County Carlow, Ireland. It is less than 2 km off the R729 regional road.
The village is named after Saint Moling (614–697), who founded a monastery there in the early 7th century. The monastery was said to have been built with the help of "Gobán Saor", the legendary Irish builder. In the 8th-century manuscript, known as "The Book of Mulling", there is a plan of the monastery - the earliest known plan of an Irish monastery - which shows four crosses inside and eight crosses outside the circular monastic wall. It is said that St Moling dug a mile-long watercourse with his own hands to power his mill, a task that took seven years. He became Bishop of Ferns, died in 697 and is buried at St. Mullins. The St Moling watercourse is still there, but the original monastery was plundered by the Vikings in 951 and was again burnt in 1138. An abbey was later built on the site. A 9th-century high cross, showing the Crucifixion and a Celtic spiral pattern, stands outside the remains of the abbey. There are also the remains of a Norman motte and some domestic medieval buildings, including one that has an unusual diamond-shaped window. St Moling's Mill and Well are not far away.
The first reference to a holy well at St. Mullins is to be found in the Annals of Friar Clyn (1348). In those times, the plague swept across Ireland and pilgrims visited the holy well in St. Mullins out of fear of the plague. They would circle the well in a clockwise direction, known as circumambulation, while reciting prayers.
For hundreds of years the holy well at St. Mullins was a revered place of pilgrimage. Canon John O'Hanlon, author of Lives of the Irish Saints, whose account dates from the late 1800s tells of the crowd assembling there on 17 June and on 25 July each year. They drank from the well and carried water home for those unable to visit. The pilgrims made the rounds (a prescribed walk) three times and waded barefoot through the stream. They recited prayers at each of the ruined churches where they prayed nine Our Fathers and nine Hail Marys.
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Wikipedia