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Sites and Monuments Record · Ireland

Ritual site - holy well

Poulacapple, County Clare, Ireland

Ordnance Survey six-inch map, 2nd edition (1888–1915) covering the location of Ritual site - holy well, Poulacapple, 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
Poulacapple
County
Clare
Country
Ireland
First-edition OS map
St Johns Well
Latest-edition OS map
St Johns Well (1916)
Coordinates
53.09086, -9.20337
SMR number
CL005-014006-

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

At the base of a S-facing cliff 350m W of the Rathborney River. In 1839, O’Donovan and Curry recorded its dedication to St John (Comber, 1997).
A well-preserved holy well formed from a natural spring in a limestone channel (Wth 0.8m) enclosed by a subcircular drystone wall (1.6m N-S; 1.3m W-W; T 0.6m; int. H 0.5m; ext. H 0.9m). the spring flows under the enclosing wall and continues for c. 3m before emptying into a pond (diam. c. 7m) and down a sink hole. Outside of the enclosing wall, the channel is crossed by several longitudinally laid slabs and a tree grows out of the wall at E. When the flow is especially strong, the water overflows into a stream, that flows S and then NE to join with Rathborney River. An inspection in 1999 did not note any sign of veneration but it is known locally as a place of veneration.
An enclosure (CL005-014011-) is located c. 100m ESE.

Comber, M. (ed.) 1997 The antiquities of County Clare, John O’Donovan and Eugene Curry: Ordnance Survey Letters 1839. Ennis. Clasp Press.

Robinson, T. 1977 The Burren. A two-inch map of the uplands of North-West Clare. Map scale 1.31680. Roundstone. Folding Landscapes.

Westropp, T.J. 1901 Prehistoric remains in north-western Clare, part 2. Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 31, 273-92.

Compiled by: Gearóid Conroy and Ros Ó Maoldúin

Date of upload: 29-July 2022

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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