Holy wells are a familiar feature of the Irish landscape, typically venerated for the healing properties of their spring water, often attached to a patron saint, and visited on particular feast days. What makes this site quietly different is that, according to local tradition recorded by Claffey in 1983, the water did not vanish entirely when the well dried up. Instead, it is said to have migrated, collecting in a hollow in the trunk of a tree growing to the north-east of the group. The curative power, in other words, moved into the tree itself.

This kind of transference, where sanctity shifts from water source to a living tree nearby, is unusual but not entirely without parallel in Irish folk belief. Trees growing beside holy wells were often considered sacred in their own right, hung with offerings of cloth or coins, and left undisturbed by local custom. Here, though, the tree appears to have absorbed the well's function rather than simply standing beside it. The site sits in the orbit of Castle Bellew, a place associated with the Bellew family, and the well is catalogued separately as a distinct monument from the tree, suggesting the two were once understood as related but separate features of the same sacred landscape.