The well is slab-lined, and a nearby slab set in concrete carries a deeply incised cross. None of this would be unusual in rural Ireland, where holy wells are scattered across the landscape in their hundreds, but what gives this place its particular character is the survival of a very old pattern of use alongside the formal religious observance that has grown up around it.

The Irish name, Tobar Muire, translates as Mary's Well or Our Lady's Well, and the site has long been associated with healing. Older records note that it was formerly visited on Saturdays by people afflicted with any kind of sickness, a practice in keeping with the broader tradition of holy wells across Ireland, where the curative properties of the water were often linked to specific days of the week or times of the liturgical year. On 15th August, the feast of the Assumption of Our Lady, a pattern is held at the well. A pattern, in the Irish folk religious sense, is a local devotional gathering, usually combining prayer, procession, and sometimes rounds performed at the well or other sacred features nearby. That same day, a major fair is held in Kenmare itself, binding the religious observance at the well to the wider life of the town in a way that reflects a much older intertwining of sacred and civic occasion.

The well is on the outskirts of Kenmare, making it accessible enough that a visitor passing through the town might find it without great difficulty. Those who visit on or around 15th August will encounter the pattern in its living form, which offers a rather different experience from arriving on a quiet weekday to find the landscaped enclosure to oneself.