Ritual site - holy well

The National Monuments Service's description

In rough pasture, on the E side of a road, on a W-facing slope of the Ox mountains. A well (D 0.6m from roof slab) with a rectangular drystone slab surround (0.8m E-W; 0.8m N-S; T 0.38m) with an opening (Wth 0.3m) at N. Two lintel slabs cover the S half which is partially collapsed.
There is no indication that this is a holy well. However, this may be the holy well referred to by O'Rorke (1878, 277) as being a little to the east of the cruckawn, called Tubbermurro, 'where stations used to be performed by the people of the neighbourhood. The well lay in a hollow between two bushes and the devotees made a circuit on their knees round the bushes, attaching to one or other of them, at the close of the exercise, a small strip of scrap of cloth, in token, probably, of willingness to make a more valuable offering if circumstances permitted or required. Either by accident or by design the water supply was cut off and the well dried, about thirty years ago, by persons quarrying close to Tubbermurro.' A footnote states that Tubbermurro signifies 'Mary's Well'.

Compiled by: Archaeological Survey Unit, UCC with revisions by Patrick F. O'Donovan and Paul Walsh

Date of upload: 20 June 2011