Tobar na Croiche Naofa, which translates roughly as the Well of the Holy Cross, is a slab-lined well, meaning its shaft is lined with flat stones set vertically or horizontally to stabilise the structure, a method used at sacred wells across Ireland for centuries. It is covered by a relatively modern protective structure topped with an iron cross, and a modern pump stands directly in front of it. The whole arrangement is quietly incongruous, a site of religious devotion compressed into a narrow gap between two buildings on a busy street.

The Ordnance Survey Name Books, compiled during the nineteenth-century mapping of Ireland and used to record local place names and features, noted that a pattern was formerly held at the well on the fourteenth of September. A pattern, from the Irish word "patrún" meaning patron, was a festive gathering at a holy well or church on a saint's feast day, combining religious observances with music, socialising, and sometimes markets. The fourteenth of September corresponds to the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, which aligns precisely with the well's Irish name. Beyond the annual pattern, rounds were also performed here on Saturday evenings and Sunday mornings. Rounds at a holy well typically involved walking a set circuit around the site a prescribed number of times while reciting prayers, a devotional practice with roots reaching back well before the formal structures of the Christian church in Ireland.