Ritual site - holy well

The National Monuments Service's description

At the base of an E-facing rocky slope, in rough pasture largely overgrown with hazel. Indicated and named 'Tobercolman' on the 1842 and 1916 OS 6-inch maps. O’Curry (Comber 1997, 77) recorded it as dedicated to ‘St Colman of Bairé’ and recorded that in 1839 there was a memory of Stations being performed at it, but that these had ceased. The national folklore collection records people visiting the townland in the 1930s, leaving offerings and a belief that the well water held a cure for the eyes (trans. in Kirby 2021). O’Curry (ibid.) also wondered if that Colman was the Colman Mac Duach of Oughtmama, an understanding seemingly followed by Ní Gabhláin (1995, 488-490). A small natural spring with a small pond c. 10m to its NE is visible at the location indicated on the OS map.

Reference:
Kirby, T. 2021 Tobar Iníon Baoith, Glensleade. The Clare Holy Wells Project Available @ https://heritage.clareheritage.org/places/holy-wells/saint-colmans-well-tobar-cholman-bhaire-tobar-colman-baur-glensleade

Compiled by: Mary Tunney and Ros Ó Maoldúin

Date of upload: 5 April 2023

References

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