Tober an amhran – Toberanouraun/Toburneglory Well (Well of the Song / Mermaid’s Well), Cahir, Ireland

Toburneglory Well

~ Tober an amhran, Well of the Song, Mermaid’s Well ~

Outside of Cahir, Ireland. TS075-029 National Monument Survey Document Sheet

We drove around for about a half hour trying to find this well, as a legendary mermaid supposedly sat her and sang songs, giving it the name “Well of the Song”. I’m not exactly sure how a mermaid would make it this far inland, so most likely the lore confused a naiad with a mermaid. Apparently, this is a destroyed well lost to history. According to the National Monuments Service from the 1654-1655 Civil Survey (Simington 1931, vol. 1, 321) this is located on the eastern bank of the Kedrah Stream and was known as the Toburneglory Well, as a landmark along the Mortlestowne parish, which may be the well now known as Toberanouraun.

It is said to have been used to pump water upwards to the Kedrah House in the 1930s until the 1960s. A water-pumping ram was purportedly inserted into it during the 1960s, and the stream was fenced off. Since then, the well was recorded to have been quarried out with no visible trace of it above ground. Research data was compiled for the Monument Survey by Jean Farrelly, added to the record on August 26, 2011, and was last physically visited on August 8, 2000.