Known locally as Cathal Dubh’s three boiling wells, these springs are submerged at high tide but were once important pilgrimage sites where people would perform a turus, a traditional Irish devotional journey. The springs take their name from Cathal Dubh, a hermit whose cell can still be seen about two miles from Malin on the road to Lagg, in the area of Goorey.

The site was documented by the folklorist Ó Muirgheasa in 1936, who noted the springs’ bubbling nature and their significance in local religious practice. While the exact age of these holy wells remains uncertain, they represent a long tradition of sacred water sites in Ireland, where natural springs were often adopted as places of Christian devotion and healing. The stone circles that define each spring suggest deliberate human modification of the natural features, transforming them into formal ritual spaces.

Today, the wells at Strabreagy stand as quiet reminders of Ireland’s complex spiritual landscape, where pre-Christian reverence for water merged with later Christian practices. Though the regular pilgrimages have ceased and the tides continue to cover and reveal the springs twice daily, the careful arrangement of stones around each well preserves the memory of their sacred purpose. The site forms part of County Donegal’s rich archaeological heritage, documented in the county’s archaeological survey and representing one of many such holy wells scattered throughout the Irish countryside.