Ritual site - holy well

The National Monuments Service's description

In a small cluster of trees to the W of a N-S running road. Named Lady’s Well on the 1838 and 1933 editions of the OS 6-inch maps. Details from The Schools’ Collection (https://www.duchas.ie/en/cbes/4583352/4582158/4591454 last accessed 12 December 2022) indicate that the well was known locally as ‘Tobar Muire’ and that in the early 19th century people used to visit it to ‘perform and pray’ but by the 1930s this was no longer the case. Pieces of cloth were tied to bushes around the well and there was also a spring well beside it.
The well is roughly subcircular in plan (1.7m E-W; 1.5m N-S; D 1m) and is enclosed by a stone wall. A wooden cross is nailed to a tree adjacent to it. Above the cross, a small statuette of Our Lady and Child is covered with a metal lid. On inspection, fresh flowers had been placed beside the statuette, indicating that the well is still in use. The spring well to the E of it, and closer to the road, is of similar size and construction.

Compiled by: Galway Archaeological Survey, UCG and Olive Alcock

Date of upload: 19 December 2022

References

O'Flanagan, Rev. M. (Compiler) 1927 Letters containing information relative to the antiquities of the county of Galway collected during the progress of the Ordnance Survey in 1839. Typescript in 3 vols. Bray.