Holy wells are among the most enduring features of the Irish countryside, typically associated with a patron saint and visited on a particular feast day as part of a practice known as "doing the rounds", where prayers are offered and small offerings, cloth, coins, or rosary beads, are left at the site. Thousands survive across the island, ranging from elaborate stonework with carved basins to simple springs in a field, and the gap between their abundance and the attention paid to them is considerable.

Formoyle Oughteragh lies in the north Clare area, a part of the county where early Christian and pre-Christian sacred sites are not uncommon. The Oughteragh element of the townland name is worth noting: Oughteragh appears elsewhere in Ireland as a parish name with early ecclesiastical associations, suggesting that the wider area may have carried religious significance over a long period. Without more detailed local records, it is difficult to say which saint, if any, this particular well was dedicated to, or what pattern day, the annual gathering held at a holy well, might once have been observed here. What can be said is that the existence of the well as a recorded monument places it within a tradition that stretches back well before the arrival of Christianity, with many such springs absorbed into Christian practice rather than abandoned.

The source material for this site is thin, and that thinness is itself a small piece of information. Many wells of this kind survive in the landscape long after the communal practices around them have faded, identifiable by a slight depression, a patch of unusual greenery, or the remnants of a small stone surround.