What is recorded here

Toberdoney is a small spring in low marshy ground where people once knelt at a station and tied prayers to a fallen ash tree. It still belongs to St. Flannel in local memory, though the water gives no name and the boulders barely mark its edge. The well does not impress; it waits, half buried in grass and forgetting, with old buttons and medals catching the light like a promise nobody remembers making.

Marked on the 1938 'OS 6-inch' map as 'Toberdoney'. The OS Letters refer to a well called Tober Domhnaigh at which a station was formerly held (CLAJ 1927, 129). It was also known locally as St. Flannel's Well in the 1930's (Irish Folklore Commission Schools' Manuscripts 668, 381). Located in low marshy ground. It is an irregular-shaped, visible spring, roughly enclosed by a few very small boulders. Some small whitethorns grow on E side and a large ash sapling has fallen from which rosary beads, medals and buttons are hanging. A piece of old railway sleeper beside the well possibly for kneeling on. (ASI field notes, 10 May 1967) Compiled by: Claire Breen Date of upload: 20 June 2012

Linked to St. Flannel (Fionnán), the well was a site of pilgrimage and healing, particularly for skin ailments. The name Tober Domhnaigh suggests a connection to St. Domnall, but local tradition in the early 20th century associated it with St. Flannel, reflecting a common practice of folk identification of holy wells with saints.

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