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Sites and Monuments Record · Ireland

Ritual site - holy tree/bush

Lecarrow (Pallas ED), County Galway, Ireland

Ordnance Survey six-inch map, 2nd edition (1888–1915) covering the location of Ritual site - holy tree/bush, Lecarrow, 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
Lecarrow (Pallas ED)
County
Galway
Country
Ireland
First-edition OS map
Not indicated
Latest-edition OS map
Bile (Site of)
Coordinates
53.15558, -8.34868
SMR number
GA117-064001-

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 1790 map "Composite: Ireland." (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries).

Historical maps covering this location

  • 1790 · Composite: Ireland. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
  • 1811 · 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

Within an ecclesiastical enclosure (GA117-064002-) and to the E of children’s burial ground (GA117-064003-). Named ‘Holy Well (Site of)’ on the 1917 edition of the OS 6-inch map and ‘Bile (Site of)’ on the 1947 revision. The latter term refers to a large ancient tree that was held in veneration (Joyce 1923, 96). No visible surface trace survives. According to local information, the tree died in the early 1900s. Water that collected in a small pool in the trunk of the tree probably resulted in it being named as a holy well on the 1917 map. When the tree died the well transferred to an ash tree to the N - see GA117-064005-.

Compiled by: Galway Archaeological Survey, UCG

Date of upload: 13 October 2017

References

Joyce, P.W. 1923 (1996 ed.) Irish local names explained. Dublin. Roberts Books.

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 tree/bush in Galway All County Galway records All Ireland Heritage registers Historical markers (US)National Register of Historic Places (US)
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