The well appears on Ordnance Survey maps from both 1839 and 1925, marked in gothic lettering on each edition, which suggests that whoever was drawing those maps considered it a place of some local consequence. By the time the second survey rolled around, though, the tradition associated with it had already been dormant for well over a century.

What makes the site quietly puzzling is the mismatch between its name and its calendar. Despite being called Saint Patrick's Well, the pattern held here, a pattern being a local devotional gathering at a holy well or saint's site, typically involving prayer, procession, and sometimes festivity, was celebrated not on Saint Patrick's Day in March but on Saint Joseph's Day, the 19th of March. The antiquarian John O'Donovan, writing around 1840, recorded this detail and noted that the pattern had not been held since approximately 1800. Why a well named for Patrick should observe the feast of Joseph is not explained in any surviving account. Joseph, husband of Mary and foster-father of Jesus, was venerated for his humility and was considered the patron saint of working men; his feast day falls just four days after Patrick's, which may have led to some blurring of association over time, or may point to an older dedication that the well's name no longer reflects. The small stream running roughly south to north about fifteen metres to the west of the site is the only geographical feature that now marks the general vicinity.