Not destroyed, not filled in, simply lost to sight, its precise position no longer known even though it sits, presumably, within a few metres of passing traffic. That particular kind of disappearance, a sacred site absorbed back into the ordinary landscape, is more common in Ireland than might be expected, but it rarely comes with such clear documentation of what was once there.

The folklorist and photographer Caoimhín Ó Danachair recorded the well in 1955, describing it as a small well set within a little grove of whitethorn, the thorny scrub that so often marks out sites of this kind in the Irish countryside. He noted that rounds were still being made there, especially in May, which places it within a living tradition of devotional practice. A round, in this context, refers to the ritual circumambulation of a sacred site, usually performed a set number of times and often accompanied by prayers, as part of a pattern day. The well was dedicated to St Ita, the sixth-century abbess of Killeedy in County Limerick, one of the most venerated female saints in Munster. Ó Danachair also visited in 1954, taking photographs that survive in the National Folklore Collection at UCD and are accessible through the Dúchas archive online.

Those photographs, catalogued as F025.21.00477 and F025.21.00476 at duchas.ie, are now the clearest evidence that the well existed at all in any visible form. They show what the site looked like before it faded from the record. Anyone curious enough to look for the well today, at the roadside somewhere in Caherlevoy, will find no marker, no shrine remnant, no worn path. The whitethorn grove that sheltered it may still be there in some form, since whitethorn is long-lived and slow to clear, but without knowing the exact stretch of road, the search is largely speculative. The archive photographs remain the most reliable way to understand what this place once was.