TreeAlive
‹ Sites and Monuments Record, Ireland

Sites and Monuments Record · Ireland

Ritual site - holy well

Dubhachta, County Galway, Ireland

Ordnance Survey six-inch map, 2nd edition (1888–1915) covering the location of Ritual site - holy well, Dubhachta, County Galway, 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
Dubhachta
County
Galway
Country
Ireland
First-edition OS map
Toberfeheen
Latest-edition OS map
Tober Feheen
Coordinates
53.51980, -9.47521
SMR number
GA026-009001-

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)

Get directions ↗

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

The National Monuments Service's description

On the roadside on N side of the Dooghta River valley. A pair of holy wells, fed from a small stream, which are dedicated to Muire (GA026-009----) and Fechín (GA026009001-). They are delimited by a rectangular drystone structure, E-shaped on plan (L 3.45m, Wth 2.9m, H 1.25m), the wells being located within its arms. A number of modern offerings are in evidence. According to local tradition, the wells originally contained a stone idol which had power over the weather; it was eventually smashed to pieces by St Fechín of Cong. The OS Letters recorded the existence of 'a flag stone called Leac Fechín [near St Fechín's Well; GA026-009002-] by which men were put to the ordeal!' (O'Flanagan 1927a, Vol. 3, 42), but no visible trace of it was found. (Hardiman 1846, 120-1)

The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Galway Vol. I - West Galway'. Compiled by Paul Gosling (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1993).

Date of upload: 05 August 2010

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 Galway All County Galway records All Ireland Heritage registers Historical markers (US)National Register of Historic Places (US)
See your own family's places on a living map