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Sites and Monuments Record · Ireland

Ritual site - holy well

Kilmoylan Lower, County Limerick, Ireland

Ordnance Survey six-inch map, 2nd edition (1888–1915) covering the location of Ritual site - holy well, Kilmoylan Lower, County Limerick, 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
Kilmoylan Lower
County
Limerick
Country
Ireland
First-edition OS map
Toberfantan
Latest-edition OS map
Toberfantan
Coordinates
52.60387, -8.25176
SMR number
LI016-008----

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)
  • 1869 · Ireland. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
  • 1891 · Ireland 16 (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
  • 1904 · Sheet 13. (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

Ó Danachair (1955, 205) recorded the following details about this holy well; ‘Toberfantan on 1840 map. A clear spring well about three feet in diameter in a grove of trees in Doon village. No devotions now, but formerly had a day of devotion on 3rd January, the feast of the patron, St Fintan of Dun Bleisce (Doon). Legend: The well moved when clothes were washed in it'. The following folklore was recorded from Doon National School about St. Fintan's Well; 'There are many wells around Doon. St. Fintan's well is situated at the side of the Barrack. Some years ago it was situated in Bottlehill a strange thing happened there, a woman washed clothes in it and it removed down to the side of the barrack' (The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0519, Page 256; accessible online at www.duchas.ie/en/cbes/4922081/4850591).

See attached photos taken in 1954 by Caoimhín Ó Danachair, courtesy of and © National Folklore Collection, UCD. The Photographic Collection, F025.21.00273 accessible online at www.duchas.ie/en/cbeg/17022 and F025.21.00274 accessible online at www.duchas.ie/en/cbeg/24553.

Compiled and revised by: Caimin O'Brien

Date of revised upload: 30 September 2020

References

Ó Danachair, C. 1955 The Holy Wells of County Limerick Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 85, 193-217

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 Limerick All County Limerick records All Ireland Heritage registers Historical markers (US)National Register of Historic Places (US)
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