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Sites and Monuments Record · Ireland

Ritual site - holy well

Oughtdarra, County Clare, Ireland

Ordnance Survey six-inch map, 2nd edition (1888–1915) covering the location of Ritual site - holy well, Oughtdarra, 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
Oughtdarra
County
Clare
Country
Ireland
First-edition OS map
Not indicated
Latest-edition OS map
Not indicated
Coordinates
53.06842, -9.34174
SMR number
CL004-123----

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)

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

The National Monuments Service's description

On an upland karstic plateau, towards the S end of in a narrow ‘valley’ between rising rocky slopes, and within an extensive field system (CL004-027001-). According to local tradition, this is a holy well (pers. comm. Pat McNamara, Dereen West, Fanore). The well is enclosed within a subrectangular enclosure (ext. 2.7m E−W; 2.2m N−S) defined by a drystone wall (Wth 0.4-0.5m; H 0.65m) built of 4-5 courses of large limestone slabs and stones, with a narrow entrance gap (Wth 0.25-0.3m) at the S end of the W wall. The E wall is built against a rising bedrock scarp. A limestone block rests on top of the enclosing wall at NE; a solution hollow on the upper surface of this stone contains a number of coins (votive offers). The well interior was dry and grassed-over on the day of visit.

The following images have been uploaded:

CL004-123----_01.jpg View from W
CL004-123----_02.jpg View from E
CL004-123----_03.jpg View from NE with stone containing coins
CL004-123----_04.jpg Stone with coins

Compiled by: Mary Tunney and Jane O'Shaughnessy

Date of upload: 10 November 2021

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 well in Clare All County Clare records All Ireland Heritage registers Historical markers (US)National Register of Historic Places (US)
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