Pollagollum, from the Irish poll an ghollam or similar variants, typically refers to a hollow, pit, or cave-like opening, and wells carrying this element in their name often mark places where water emerges from the ground in some notably abrupt or dramatic fashion, rising through limestone or surfacing at the base of a rocky outcrop rather than gathering gently in a constructed surround. The townland of Glennagloghaun in County Galway sits within a landscape shaped by the slow work of water on carboniferous limestone, the same geology that produces the Burren's pavements just to the south, and wells in such terrain can appear and disappear with the water table, run cold even in summer, or carry a long local reputation for curative properties.

Holy wells and named water sources of this kind occupy a particular place in the archaeology of rural Ireland. Many were venerated long before Christianity gave them patron saints and pattern days, accumulating layers of belief and practice over centuries. The act of visiting, circumambulating, and leaving a token at such a well, known as making a round or doing the stations, persisted in parts of Connacht well into the twentieth century, sometimes against the open discouragement of the institutional church. Whether Pollagollum Well at Glennagloghaun carried such traditions is not currently documented in available sources, but the combination of an evocative placename, a recorded monument designation, and a west Galway limestone setting places it firmly within a broader pattern of landscape features that rewarded close local knowledge and, occasionally, bare feet on wet grass.