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Sites and Monuments Record · Ireland

Ritual site - holy well

Rathanny, County Limerick, Ireland

Ordnance Survey six-inch map, 2nd edition (1888–1915) covering the location of Ritual site - holy well, Rathanny, 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
Rathanny
County
Limerick
Country
Ireland
First-edition OS map
Tobergobbun
Latest-edition OS map
Tobergobban (1927)
Coordinates
52.46302, -8.47121
SMR number
LI040-017----

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)
  • 1882 · Ireland (southern half). (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, 216-7) recorded the following details about this holy well; 'Tobergobbun on 1840 map. "Tobar Ghobain, St Gobban's Well". OSNB. A shallow well, four feet in diameter, with a moderate spring. "This well is remarkable for the curing of many diseases, there is a treasure supposed to be hidden here which is guarded by a serpent". OSNB. No devotions now, but known to have been a holy well. Rounds were made for the cure of eye ailments. A wooden piggin was left at the well for the use of pilgrims'.

See attached photos taken in 1954 by Caoimhín Ó Danachair, courtesy of and © National Folklore Collection, UCD. The Photographic Collection, F025.21.00453 accessible online at www.duchas.ie/en/cbeg/31010; F025.21.00454 accessible online at www.duchas.ie/en/cbeg/17080 and F025.21.00452 accessible online at www.duchas.ie/en/cbeg/17080.

Compiled and revised by: Caimin O'Brien

Date of revised upload: 3 October 2020

References

OSNB - Ordnance Survey Name Books. Pro-forma books arranged by Civil Parish for recording townland and other name-forms and compiled in the course of the OS 6-inch survey 1824-1841. The name books also include minor names and incidental references to antiquities. National Archives of Ireland.

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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