Known locally as the Turas Well or St. Peter’s Well, this sacred spring is marked by a modest cairn of stones and various offerings left by visitors who still come to perform stations at this ancient ritual site. The well’s location in boggy ground adds to its otherworldly atmosphere, requiring determined pilgrims to navigate the sodden landscape to reach this place of devotion.

The well’s heyday as a pilgrimage destination occurred in the latter half of the 19th century, when it attracted enormous crowds each year on 29 June, the feast day of St. Peter. According to accounts collected by folklorist Ó Muirgheasa in 1936, local tradition held that “cars and carts from every art” would converge on the site, and that “a horse and cart would not draw all the crutches that were at it then”; a vivid testament to the number of people who claimed to have been healed at the well. These large gatherings, known as patterns or stations, continued with great fanfare until around 1880, when they began to diminish in scale.

Whilst the massive pilgrimages of the Victorian era have long since ended, the Turas Well remains an active site of religious observance. Modern visitors still perform stations here, following ancient patterns of prayer and ritual, though in far smaller numbers than their predecessors. The pile of stones and offerings that mark the well continue to grow, evidence that this sacred spring, first noted on Ordnance Survey maps as St. Peter’s Well, maintains its hold on the spiritual landscape of Donegal.