This pothole, known locally as Tobar Bhréannáin, is considered a holy well, though it exists at the mercy of the tides rather than in the churchyard or roadside setting where such wells are usually found. A holy well is typically a freshwater spring or pool associated with a saint, visited for ritual, prayer, or healing. This one sits in salt water, exposed only when the sea retreats, on a rock called An tIfearnáin.

The dedication to Bhréannáin, a form of the name Brendan, gestures toward the cult of Saint Brendan the Navigator, the sixth-century monk from Munster who is credited in early medieval tradition with a legendary Atlantic voyage and whose name surfaces repeatedly along the western seaboard of Ireland. Whether the connection here is to that same figure or to a more local version of the name is not recorded. What is recorded, by Tim Robinson in his 1985 geographical and cultural study of the region, is simply the name, the location, and its local reputation. The well itself was not visited at the time of recording, which gives it an almost provisional quality, a place that exists mainly in local knowledge and tidal timing.