Sites and Monuments Record · Ireland
Ritual site - holy well
Rakerin, County Galway, Ireland
The record
- Townland
- Rakerin
- County
- Galway
- Country
- Ireland
- First-edition OS map
- ‘Tobermacduagh’
- Latest-edition OS map
- ‘Tobermacduagh’
- Coordinates
- 53.07278, -8.78152
- SMR number
- GA123-080----
Slide toward Today to fade the historical sheet and see the modern map underneath.
David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries
Shown on 4 historical map sheets, the earliest the 1753 "Mappa geographica Regni Hiberniae" (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries).
This record in the National Monuments Service's Historic Environment Viewer ↗
The National Monuments Service's description
In flat pastureland. Known locally as ‘St Coleman’s Well’. On inspection this holy well was defined by a natural spring, roughly P-shaped in plan and enclosed by a drystone-built wall (2.2m N-S; 0.3-1.4m E-W; H 1.5m). The spring fed a domestic well immediately to the N. A slab across the N end of the spring well, c. 0.4m above the water level, formed a division between it and the domestic well. According to local information, St Colman stopped to pray, after burying the ‘King’, at a large flagstone in the field to the SW. The flagstone is said to bear the imprints of his knees.
Galway Archaeological Survey, UCG
Date of upload: 9 May 2023
Nearby in the register
- Ringfort - rathunder 1 mi
- Designed landscape - tree-ringunder 1 mi
- Souterrainunder 1 mi
- Ringfort - rathunder 1 mi
Other entries of the same register within about three miles of this one, by straight line.