The Nuns Well, Rosemount House, Greyabbey, Newtownards, Co Down, BT22 2QA

The Nuns Well

This well house, probably dating to the mid-to-late 18th century, stands in the parkland pasture north of Rosemount House in the demesne landscape of Grey Abbey. It is built over a medieval ecclesiastical well close to the ruins of a 12th-century Cistercian abbey and incorporates reused medieval stonework, creating a picturesque and historically evocative garden feature.

The building is a single-storey structure of oblong plan with a domical form, constructed of sandstone, basalt, and slate rubble, partly rendered. The entrance faces approximately north in a flat plane of segmental arched profile, built of snecked stonework. A segmental-arched entrance occupies the centre, its voussoirs of shaped sandstone, three of which bear a torus moulding to the reveal. The archway is surmounted by a shaped keystone block carved in relief with a human face in primitive style. The entrance wall is topped by a concrete coping formed by the roof edge. The sides, curved rear, and domical roof are covered with concrete render, which is cracked and spalled in places to reveal the underlying rubble stone carcase.

The interior comprises a single cell space, clearly visible from outside through the open entrance and approached down one step to water level. The plan is rectangular at water level, changing to a coved plan above by means of corbelled rear corners. The roof is stone-vaulted in domical form. A lead pipe emerges from the rear wall into the water, and a rusted, broken iron pipe projects from the right-hand wall.

The well has medieval associations. Walter Harris described it in 1744 as "a large well of sweet and limpid water, over which is raised a high vaulted arch, ornamented with heads, and some other sculpture in stone, which seems to be the same piece of architecture that stood here when the abbey subsisted." The water reportedly never failed even in the driest season and fed a large canal. The architectural features Harris recorded have since disappeared, probably by 1874 when J.J. Phillips quoted Harris's account, and certainly by 1940. The present structure probably dates from the mid-to-late 18th century, erected as much as a garden landscape feature as for practical water supply protection. The arch voussoirs with torus moulding are probably reused medieval fragments from the nearby abbey; the sculpted head appears to date from the Early Christian era, though its date is uncertain. The building is marked as "The Nuns Well" on the Ordnance Survey map of 1834 and has traditionally been regarded as an ancient well associated with Grey Abbey.

The well house stands within the scheduled monument area of Grey Abbey and is surrounded by mature trees, though easily visible from the adjacent abbey ruins. A small tree grows against its west side.