What is recorded here

Tobermurry, or Tobar Muire, stood beside a Galway trackway as a holy well where people gathered each 15th August. Local tradition claims travelling people washed clothes in it until it seized up, suggesting even sacred water has limits. A new road has since buried the site, removing the visible marker but not the memory that human desire can choke what devotion keeps alive.

On the side of a trackway in the field NE of the bridge at Leenaun village. This well, correctly Tobar Muire, is now blocked up and totally obscured by growth. According to local tradition, it was frequented on 15th August, 'Pattern Fair' day, until 'travelling people washed their clothes in it and it seized up'. Now obliterated by new road (pers. comm. T. Robinson). The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Galway Vol. I - West Galway'. Compiled by Paul Gosling (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1993). Date of upload: 05 August 2010

Tobermurry (Tobar Muire) is associated with Saint Mary and was traditionally visited on 15th August, the Feast of the Assumption, for healing and spiritual purposes. The well's name and date of veneration suggest a Christianized form of an older pagan festival linked to fertility and water cults.

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