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Sites and Monuments Record · Ireland

Ritual site - holy well

Gragan East, County Clare, Ireland

Ordnance Survey six-inch map, 2nd edition (1888–1915) covering the location of Ritual site - holy well, Gragan East, 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
Gragan East
County
Clare
Country
Ireland
First-edition OS map
Tobergahard
Latest-edition OS map
Tobergahard (1916)
Coordinates
53.08308, -9.16531
SMR number
CL005-093----

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

Near the base of a steep NW-facing rock face under dense hazel scrub, just off the R480. Indicated and named 'Tobergahard' on both the first edition (1842) and later, Cassini edition (1916) of the OS 6-inch map.
A small, natural spring emerging from the limestone pavement is surrounded by a rough stone wall. The well is still venerated and devotional objects, including a statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary, were recorded during a recent research visit by The Clare Holy Wells Project (Kirby 2021). According to local tradition (National Folklore Collection, Schools, UCD, vol. 0616, p 24) the water was used as a cure for eye complaints.

References:
Kirby, T. 2021 Tobergahard Holy Well, Gragan East. The Clare Holy Wells Project. Accessed 16 January 2023; Available @ https://heritage.clareheritage.org/places/holy-wells/tobargahard-holy-well-gragan-east.

The National Folklore collection, UCD: The Schools Collection (A collection of folklore compiled by schoolchildren in Ireland in the 1930s.) Accessed 16 January 2023; Available @ https://www.duchas.ie/en/cbes/4922365/4874568

Compiled by: Gearóid Conroy and Ros Ó Maoldúin

Date of upload: 16 January 2023

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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