Toberreendoney, Lisnagoneeny, Co. Kerry

Co. Kerry |

Holy Sites & Wells

Toberreendoney, Lisnagoneeny, Co. Kerry

For the better part of a century, the Ordnance Survey maps had this well in the wrong place.

The 1841 to 1842 survey placed it a full 200 yards north of its actual position, an error that quietly persisted until the 1915 revision finally set the record straight. The well's Irish name, Tobar Rí an Domhnaigh, translates as "well of the king of Sunday", a phrase that carries the particular flavour of Gaelic sacred geography, where royalty and the Sabbath converge in ways that are more felt than easily explained.

The well itself is a shallow pool approached by three stone steps, with a further three steps on the northern side leading up to a small grotto. A path encircles the whole arrangement, well, grotto, and steps together, and a whitethorn tree stands beside it. The whitethorn, also called the fairy thorn, is a familiar companion to holy wells across Ireland; its presence at such sites is rarely accidental and carries long associations with supernatural protection and folk veneration. The practice of leaving votive offerings, known as "rounds", is still observed here. Visitors leave rags tied to the branches or nearby vegetation, along with small religious objects, continuing a tradition of devotion that sits somewhere between formal Catholicism and much older customs of petition and thanks at sacred water sources.

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