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Sites and Monuments Record · Ireland

Ritual site - holy tree/bush

Dooneen (Bunratty Upper By.), County Clare, Ireland

Ordnance Survey six-inch map, 2nd edition (1888–1915) covering the location of Ritual site - holy tree/bush, Dooneen, County Clare, with a pin at the register's coordinates
Ordnance Survey six-inch map, 2nd edition (1888–1915), covering this location. Courtesy of the National Library of Scotland. The pin is ours, placed from the register's coordinates.

The record

Townland
Dooneen (Bunratty Upper By.)
County
Clare
Country
Ireland
First-edition OS map
Skeaghvreedy Bush
Latest-edition OS map
Skeaghvreedy Bush
Coordinates
53.12664, -9.06928
SMR number
CL003-040----

Slide toward Today to fade the historical sheet and see the modern map underneath.

David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries

4 historical maps cover this location, the earliest the 1753 map "Mappa geographica Regni Hiberniae" (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries).

Historical maps covering this location

  • 1753 · Mappa geographica Regni Hiberniae (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
  • 1790 · Composite: Ireland. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
  • 1869 · Ireland. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
  • 1891 · Ireland 16 (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)

Get directions ↗

This record in the National Monuments Service's Historic Environment Viewer ↗

The National Monuments Service's description

On a moderately steep SW-facing slope of good pastureland, on the seaward side of the N67. Indicated and named ‘Skeaghvreedy Bush’ on the 1842 and 1915 eds. of the OS 6-inch maps and named ‘St. Brigid’s Bush’ on Robinson’s map (1977). Listed as 'Holy bush (possible)’ in the RMP (1996). A cluster of three or four windswept and flat-topped whitethorn bushes. According to Houlihan (2016, 43–4), pilgrims still gathered here on Brigid’s day within living memory, but the tradition has now stopped.

Compiled by: Mary Tunney and Ros Ó Maoldúin

Date of upload: 15 December 2020

References

Robinson, T. 1977 (revised 1999) The Burren: a two-inch map of the uplands of north-west Clare. Map scale 1:31680. Roundstone: Folding Landscapes.

Houlihan, M. 2016 The sacred trees of county Clare. Privately published.

Nearby in the register

Other entries of the same register within about three miles of this one, by straight line.

Sites and Monuments Record data: National Monuments Service, Government of Ireland, licensed under CC BY 4.0. Record text is reproduced unchanged. National Monuments Service, Government of Ireland · CC BY 4.0
All Ritual site - holy tree/bush in Clare All County Clare records All Ireland Heritage registers Historical markers (US)National Register of Historic Places (US)
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