What is recorded here

Tober Keerann is a holy well in Kilmacteige, County Sligo, Ireland. It sits in an overgrown hollow beside a stream where cattle have poached the ground. Wood-Martin wrote that a small ash tree beside the well was covered in rags and visited by farmers wives and daughters seeking help for sick cows or poor butter yield. He also recorded a last Sunday in July pilgrimage with a procession from Kilmacteige church and three Rosary circles at the well.

In a hollow covered with overgrowth, beside a stream. This is a spring well, with the surrounding ground poached by cattle. There is no evidence of recent veneration here. According to Wood-Martin (1892, 357), a small ash tree beside 'Tubber-Keeran, or St. Keeran's-well', is covered in rags and frequented by country people for many reasons but mainly by 'farmers wives and daughters whose cows are sick or not producing as much butter as they expected'. Pilgrimage to the well was on the last Sunday in July with a procession from Kilmacteige church (SL036-021001-), c. 200m to S, to the well where three circles of the Rosary were said (ITA). The origin of the name Keerann may come from the Irish for mountain ash 'Caerthain, pronounced caraun' or from a corruption of Tubber Ciaran, well of Ciaran (O'Rorke [1889], vol. 2, 152). According to Wood-Martin (1892, 357, n. 1), there were possible bullaun stones (see SL036-021006-) close to the well. The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Sligo' compiled by Ursula Egan, Elizabeth Byrne, Mary Sleeman with Sheila Ronan and Connie Murphy (Dublin Stationery Office, 2005). Date of upload: 18 January 2008

Tober Keerann is associated with Saint Keerann, a lesser-known early Irish saint linked to local healing traditions. The well was historically visited for its supposed curative properties, particularly for ailments of the eyes and skin, and was likely a site of seasonal rituals and offerings.

The monument record does not grant public access. Check the route and ask the landowner before entering private land.