On the northern slope of Cnoc Buí in Glinsce, on the Connemara coast of County Galway, the one known locally as Tobar Muire, or Mary's Well, is nothing more than a small cavity in a slanting outcrop of smooth rock where rainwater collects. A flat stone covers the opening; a low horseshoe-shaped drystone wall, roughly 1.6 metres by 1.5 metres and open to the south, marks the boundary of the sacred space. It is a minimal, almost accidental-looking thing, and that is precisely what makes it worth attention.

Holy wells dedicated to the Virgin Mary are common across the west of Ireland, and their origins are often genuinely difficult to untangle. Many occupy sites with pre-Christian associations, the dedication to Mary arriving later as a kind of overlay. What is documented here, noted by Tim Robinson in his 1985 study of the region, is the continued presence of offerings on a small flagstone that projects from the wall above the well. These are described as modern, which suggests the site remained in active devotional use into at least the late twentieth century. The structure itself is entirely vernacular, built without mortar, without ornament, shaped only by the logic of enclosure and reverence.