Tobernakinneriga, Ceathrú An Lisín, Co. Galway
Co. Galway |
Holy Sites & Wells
A small spring enclosed by a low circular wall of dry-laid stone, barely three metres across, might seem an unremarkable thing to find on the Galway landscape.
What makes this one worth pausing over is its dedication to a saint whose name has largely slipped from common knowledge, and the fact that it has been quietly sitting in the same spot, in recognisable form, for at least three centuries of recorded observation.
The well is known locally as Tobar Chinndeirge, dedicated to the saint of that name, and lies some fifty metres south-west of Teampall na Seacht Mac Rí, a ruined church whose name translates roughly as the Church of the Seven Kings' Sons. The pairing of a holy well with a nearby early ecclesiastical site is a common pattern across Ireland, where natural springs were often absorbed into Christian devotional practice while retaining older associations. This particular well was noted in 1684 by Roderic O'Flaherty, the Galway historian and antiquarian whose work on the west of Ireland remains a significant source for the period. The physical structure is simple: a natural spring contained within a low, roughly circular wall of drystone construction, the kind of unmortared fieldstone building technique that can be found across the west of Ireland and requires no specialist tools to read.