What is recorded here

Tober Mweelin is a red-brick well-house built in the 19th century to pipe clear water into Kylemore Castle, yet local memory still credits it to a saint named Maol or Maol Roc. The chamber measures barely two metres across, has a slab-gabled roof and a western doorway, and it sits just north of a graveyard inside Connemara National Park. The name may simply mean ridge or rounded summit, which turns the holy claim into a clever invention rather than a documented life. Water still rises there, feeding a castle, a county and a story that keeps changing its shape.

Just N of a graveyard (GA023-023002-) and within Connemara National Park. This well, correctly Tobar MaOilean, consists of a natural spring, now enclosed within a small rectangular 19th-C well-house (L 1.9m, Wth 1.6m, H 0.9m) of red brick, with a gabled roof of large slabs and a doorway in W wall. It was built to supply water to Kylemore Castle (pers. comm. T. Robinson). Reputedly associated with a St Maol or Maol Roc (Tully Cross I.C.A. 1985, 9): however, a maoilean is a ridge or rounded summit, so this may be a recent invention (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

Tober Mweelin is associated with St. Maodhoin (MaOilean), a lesser-known early Irish saint, and was traditionally visited for its supposed healing properties, particularly for skin ailments and general well-being. The well’s location near a graveyard suggests it may have been used in local burial or commemorative rituals.

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