The well itself is no longer accessible in the traditional sense, sealed away under the utilitarian structure that now occupies its site, yet the stories attached to it persist in local memory with considerable force. Its Irish name, Tobar na gCloc Dearg, translates roughly as the Well of the Red Stones, and the tradition behind that name is a striking one: that a priest was killed at the spot, and that his blood stained the surrounding stones, giving the place both its name and its sanctity.

The well was dedicated to Our Lady, according to local tradition, which places it within a very common pattern of Marian association among Irish holy wells. What makes this one somewhat unusual is the layering of devotional memory on top of a violent founding story. Writing in 1934, a researcher named Bowman recorded that the well had formerly been the site of rounds, the ritual circumambulations that characterised Irish holy well practice, typically performed in a set number of circuits while reciting prayers. At Tobar na gCloc Dearg, these rounds had been observed on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays, though Bowman noted that even by his time the practice had long since been discontinued. The abandonment of the rounds, combined with the later construction of the pump house over the well itself, means that the site exists now almost entirely as a place of inherited story rather than active observance.