The well itself is modest in scale, a circular shaft just over a metre wide and two metres deep, enclosed by a stone structure with a slate roof and an iron gate. Steps lead down to the water, and the base narrows into a small basin. Scattered coins and stones rest at the bottom, the residue of old habits that have not entirely died. Locally it is called Lady's Well, though the plaque names it St. Mary's Well, and the tradition behind both names points to a nearby Catholic church that has since passed into Protestant hands.

Holy wells in Ireland were typically visited on fixed feast days, the calendar marking out the moments when the water was held to be especially potent. This one was attended on the 25th of March, the feast of the Annunciation, and on the 15th of August, the feast of the Assumption. The practice of doing "rounds" at a well, walking a prescribed circuit while reciting prayers, was the standard form of devotion, and a photograph from the mid-1930s records pilgrims doing exactly that here on an August 15th. The well was credited with curing sore throats, and with efficacy for baptisms. Folklore gathered from the Monastery School in Killarney preserves two darker stories. In one, a wicked man who refused to pray reached into the water to grab a fish, slipped, fell in and drowned; his son, jumping in to save him, drowned as well. In the other, a trout lived in the well whose mere appearance was enough to cure any illness. A man who tried to net the trout found his hand and legs suddenly paralysed as he hauled it up. The trout turned to stone and, according to the tradition, that stone can still be seen at the edge of the well.

The well is accessible in the car park to the rear of the town hall, and the stone enclosure with its gate makes it easy enough to locate once you know to look for it. The 15th of August remains the date most associated with the site, and while organised pilgrimage on that scale belongs largely to the past, the coins in the water suggest the impulse has not entirely faded.