Tobercornan Well
Photo: The Banner · CC BY-SA 3.0
Ritual site - holy well

Tobercornan Well

Tobar Chornáin

Well in Gleninagh North, County Clare, Ireland.

  • AccessNot confirmed
  • National MonumentNot recorded
  • 19th-centuryIn the record
  • FolkloreNone recorded
  • PhotoWikimedia Commons
Gleninagh North, Co. Clare53.13292, -9.19444
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Unofficial guide. Not the National Monuments Service, the OPW, Fáilte Ireland or the landowner. Disclaimer

At a glance

  • TypeRitual site - holy well
  • Date or period mentioned19th-century
  • Recorded size1.5m N–S x 1.2m E–W; D 0.2m

What to look for

  • Steps down

Picked out from the Archaeological Survey description below.

Can you visit?

  • No source says it is open to the public.Most monuments in Ireland stand on private farmland.
  • Ask the landowner before crossing fields, close gates, leave the stones as you find them.Visiting responsibly
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History and description

On the roadside with higher rocky ground, the source of the spring, rising immediately to S. Indicated and named ‘Tobercornan’ on the 1842 and 1915 OS 6-inch maps and named ‘Pinnacle Well’ and ‘Tobar Chornáin’ on Robinson’s map of the Burren (1977). A partially quarried rock pool (1.5m N–S x 1.2m E–W; D 0.2m) fed by a natural spring and enclosed in a square 19th-century Gothic Revival single-bay wellhouse.

Full archaeological record 147 words

On the roadside with higher rocky ground, the source of the spring, rising immediately to S. Indicated and named ‘Tobercornan’ on the 1842 and 1915 OS 6-inch maps and named ‘Pinnacle Well’ and ‘Tobar Chornáin’ on Robinson’s map of the Burren (1977). A partially quarried rock pool (1.5m N–S x 1.2m E–W; D 0.2m) fed by a natural spring and enclosed in a square 19th-century Gothic Revival single-bay wellhouse. The wellhouse is built from dressed limestone blocks and has projecting corner buttresses capped with pinnacles. The roof is of corbelled rubble stone with dressed stone gable copings (NIAH). The well is entered over a small blocking stone and through a pointed-arched doorway in N wall from where three steps lead down to water level. Cunningham (1980, 36) noted that the name could refer to the Irish word for Pennywort (a plant) or to a person named ‘Cornan’.

Archaeological Survey of Ireland, National Monuments Service (CC BY 4.0) · Compiled by Mary Tunney and Ros Ó Maoldúin · Updated 1 December 2020. It describes the site as it was when surveyed.

More holy wells nearby

Also recorded nearby

Named sites within 5 km with only a short entry in the Archaeological Survey.

  • Caherdooneerish Stone FortRingfort - cashel · Murrooghtoohy North · 4.6 km · official record
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      Around Tobercornan Well

      Other heritage nearby

      Recorded within 5 km

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