At the foot of a slope on the western bank of the Royal Canal in Leixlip, there is a well that belongs to no saint. Most holy wells in Ireland are dedicated to a specific patron, their calendar dates and associated cures organised around a named figure whose story gives the place its meaning. This one operates differently. Known locally as the Spa Well, it is connected by tradition to the relief of sore eyes and is visited during August, when people sometimes leave rags on the surrounding bushes and briars. This practice, known as rag-well tradition or clootie custom, involves tying a strip of cloth to a tree or bush beside a well, often in the belief that as the rag decays, an ailment will ease with it. Here, the gesture survives even without the canonical rag-tree that usually anchors it.

The local belief, recorded by Jackson in 1979 to 1980, holds that a monastery once stood nearby, which would offer one explanation for the well's long-standing reputation without requiring a saintly dedication. The physical structure is more substantial than the typical modest well-surround: a large, square pool, nine metres on each side, enclosed on its south-eastern and south-western sides by well-built, mortared stone walling, while the north-western and north-eastern faces remain open. That combination of careful masonry and deliberate openness gives the site an architectural presence that sits somewhere between a functional water source and something more considered. Whether the walling is old enough to connect to any monastic period is not recorded, but its quality suggests this was never merely a casual gathering of stones around a spring.