Holy wells, of which Ireland has thousands, tend to accumulate meaning over time, but this one has gathered something unusually legible: the interior faces of its structural stones are covered in carvings, inscriptions, and graffiti spanning at least two centuries, each layer left by someone who felt compelled to mark the stone while the water ran beneath.

The well, known as Toberpatrick, encloses a spring emerging from low bedrock terracing. Its alcove holds votive offerings in the customary fashion, but the stones themselves carry a stranger archive. The largest bears a carved human figure, described as rock scribing or folk art, which researcher Nick Geh documented alongside a harp motif, the words 'God save Ireland', and the date 1867, accompanied by the name 'W Williamson, Curranrue, August 3rd 1867'. A second slab carries a Latin inscription, 'Libertas et natale solum' (liberty and one's native land), decorated with carved berries and leaves on either side. A third reads 'M. Byrne RIC. AD 1916, Kinvara', a Royal Irish Constabulary officer leaving his name in the same year the country was lurching towards revolution. The carved human figure may not have originated at the well at all: according to Coffey, writing in 1995, the rock scribing was originally part of a leacht cuimhne, a commemorative memorial stone, that stands roughly thirty metres to the north-north-west and is associated with the Comyn family. That leacht bears a similar carved human face, suggesting the decorated slab was at some point moved or incorporated into the well structure. Immediately north-east of the well, a subrectangular enclosure and the foundations of a further structure add to what is clearly a small complex of related features on this hillside terrace.