What is recorded here

Skaghabanoo, recorded as Skaghavanoo on maps from 1897, marks a ritual site in County Clare where a holy whitethorn stood beside a large rath and an underground passage. MacNamara translated the name as The Whitethorn of the Blessing, suggesting the bush was not decoration but the reason the place existed. Westropp still saw the cross head and bush in 1900, while Houlihan found aged whitethorns there in 2016, leaving the original uncertain but the character of the site unchanged: a small cluster of branches doing the work of prayer.

Named ‘Skaghavanoo’ on the OS 25-inch plan (1897) - which appears to show its location at the junction of two later field boundaries c. 9m to the NW of a rath (CL017-088002-) - and similarly recorded on the Cassini edition (1916) of the OS 6-inch map. A holy bush noted by Westropp (1900-2, 139; No. 44) who recorded that, ‘ … the head of a bossed Celtic cross (CL017-088003-) and the holy bush which gives the place its name, remain near a large rath [CL017-088002-], with a Man-made underground passage [CL017-088004-] …’ MacNamara (1900, 31-2) suggested that the fort’s name, ‘Skaghavanoo’ could be translated as ‘Sceach an bheannuighte’, or The Whitethorn of the Blessing’. It is unclear if the tree described by Westropp still survives, but Houlihan (2016, 43) noted ‘a number of aged whitethorns’ at the site, one of which he suggested may be the “sceach”. Compiled by: Gearóid Conroy and Eve Campbell Date of upload: 21-10-2025

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