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Sites and Monuments Record · Ireland

Ritual site - holy well

Killaspuglonane, County Clare, Ireland

Ordnance Survey six-inch map, 2nd edition (1888–1915) covering the location of Ritual site - holy well, Killaspuglonane, 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
Killaspuglonane
County
Clare
Country
Ireland
First-edition OS map
Toberlonane
Latest-edition OS map
Toberlonane (1916)
Coordinates
52.95680, -9.34254
SMR number
CL015-059005-

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 a S-facing slope in marshy pasture c.40m E of a small S-flowing stream that forms part of the boundary of an ecclesiastical enclosure (CL015-059001-). Indicated and labelled ‘Toberlonane’ on both the first (1840) and Cassini (1916) editions of the OS 6-inch map. O’Donovan (Comber 1997, 94) noted the well, commenting that ‘stations continue still to be performed’, and his informants recalled the former presence of a pattern at the site but could not recall its day. 

The holy well lies within a C-shaped drystone walled enclosure (diam. c. 10m) flanked to the N by a boreen. The well is formed by a deep pool (D c. 1m) within a simple wellhouse formed by a U-plan drystone wall open to the SE and capped with two large flagstones (L 1m; W 0.6m and L 0.6m; W 0.8m). A carved stone head (CL015-059004-) was found ‘beside’ the holy well (Swan 1987, 159). 

 

Compiled by: Gearóid Conroy and Eve Campbell

 

Date of upload: 8-10-2025

References

Comber, M. (ed.) 1997 The antiquities of County Clare: John O’Donovan and Eugene Curry: Ordnance Survey Letters 1839. Clasp Press. Ennis.
Swan, L 1987 A carved stone head from Killaspuglonane, Co. Clare. In Rynne, E. (ed.) Figures from the past: studies on figurative art in Christian Ireland, 159-167. Glendale Press. Dublin.

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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