Tobernavean, Pollagh, Co. Kilkenny
Co. Kilkenny |
Holy Sites & Wells
In a small wooded area near Pollagh in County Kilkenny, a holy well sits quietly beneath the trees, its Irish name, Tobernavean, carrying the word "tobar", meaning well, as so many of these sites do across the island.
What makes it linger in the mind is its consistency across time: it appears on the first edition six-inch Ordnance Survey map of 1839, holding the same name it bears today, and again on the 1900 revision, unchanged.
The 1839 Ordnance Survey mapping was a remarkable undertaking, the most detailed cartographic project Ireland had seen, and the fact that Tobernavean was considered worth recording speaks to the significance these wells held in local life. Holy wells were, and in many places remain, sites of pattern days, prayers, and quiet ritual, often predating the formal structures of the Church while being absorbed into Christian practice over centuries. The 1900 revision confirms the well's presence and name were still recognised at the turn of the twentieth century, and both maps show a stream running eastward from the well, a detail that anchors it in the actual landscape rather than leaving it purely in the realm of tradition.