The one at An Eachléim, in County Mayo, is recorded as a monument in its own right, which tells us something even in the absence of detail: these sites were not merely springs or pools but places with enough accumulated meaning to be formally recognised alongside ringforts, souterrains, and stone circles. An Eachléim is a small townland on the Erris peninsula in northwest Mayo, a stretch of Atlantic coastline where Gaelic-speaking communities maintained traditions, including patterns at holy wells, long after they had faded elsewhere.

Holy wells in Ireland were typically associated with a named saint, visited on a specific feast day in a ritual circuit called a pattern, from the Irish word "pátrún" meaning patron. Offerings left at such wells, rags tied to nearby trees, coins pressed into stone, or simply water taken away in vessels, reflect a continuity of practice stretching back well before Christianity gave these places their current dedications. In a county like Mayo, where the landscape holds a dense concentration of early medieval religious sites, a holy well is rarely an isolated feature. It often sits within a broader sacred geography, connected by tradition to a local saint's life, a cure attributed to the water, or a particular calendar date when the well's power was understood to be at its strongest. The specific patron, dedication, and any associated pattern day at An Eachléim are not currently documented in available records.