County: Dublin Site name: TOBERMACLUGG
Sites and Monuments Record No.: SMR 17:27 Licence number: 01E1152
Author: Georgina Scally1, for Margaret Gowen & Co. Ltd.
Site type: Ritual site - holy well and House - 18th century
Period/Dating: Post Medieval (AD 1600-AD 1750)
ITM: E 701190m, N 733961m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.346188, -6.480281
Test excavation before development was carried out in the townland of Tobermaclugg in west Dublin. The site of Tobermaclugg House is on elevated ground adjacent to a small side road. Before test excavation, the remains of a large (20m by 10m) rectangular stone building, with walls standing a maximum of 1m high, were identified on the site, together with outbuildings standing a maximum of 0.6m high; most of the walls were obscured by dense overgrowth. The reputed site of the well of the same name lies c. 80m farther east in a low-lying area of wet, marshy ground.
Seven trenches were excavated by mechanical digger on the high ground in the reputed location of Tobermaclugg House. No remains of any structure outside the foundations of those visible on the site were found. The extant remains are probably of 19th-century date, but it cannot be ruled out that the large rectangular building lies on the site of an earlier house.
A single trench was excavated in the area of the reputed location of Tobermaclugg well. The remains of a stone structure, c. 1m square, were found beneath topsoil. The structure was abutted on its eastern side by three stone steps. The remains uncovered indicated that this is the location of Tobermaclugg holy well. No further excavation took place.
81 Upper Leeson Street, Dublin 4
