Tobermaclugg Holy Well

Tobermaclugg Holy Well

Helen Farrell

Tobermaclugg Holy Well

Lucan, County Dublin

This medieval holy well is close to a medieval ecclesiastical enclosure and graveyard in Aderrig circa 800m away, the ruined church still extant, although in encroaching suburbia. The well dried up since a pumping station was built about 20 yards away, but the author remembers it being wet, before the development began. Little remains of the well to the untrained eye, however, the site was not fully excavated in 2001 - see extract and link to the excavation report below. The traces of a low oval-ish wall enclosing the site, the remains of a couple of steps down to the well, and the possible remains of the collapsed wellhouse that presumably held the bell are still in situ, although no signage or indication of the significance of the site exists to alert passers-by. The name means "the well of the bell" in Irish (Gaeilge) or "Tobar na gClog". The nearby stream, Tobermaclugg stream, has been extensively culverted to facilitate adjacent housing development. This holy well is under threat of total destruction.

Extract from Excavation Report from 2001 (G. Scally https://excavations.ie/report/2001/Dublin/0006414/ ) "Remains of a well were located c. 0.4m below present ground level. The well was composed of a roughly oval area of cut stone c. 1m in diameter, c. 0.5m high and abutted by three stone steps; it was not fully exposed. The trench was backfilled and no further excavation took place.

It is supposed to hold a cure for diseases of the eye and ears.

No pattern is associated with it now.

The name means "the well of the bell" in Irish.

G. Scally. 2001. https://excavations.ie/report/2001/Dublin/0006414/