This was Saint Ciaran's well. He had founded the monastery of Clonmachnois just a cow pasture above the broad and winding River Shannon in central Ireland in the sixth century. St. Ciaran's Well, with ancient pilgrim crosses and prayer ribbons.
People come to the well in search of healing, for themselves or someone else.
The cloth ribbons signify a prayer left there by the one who touched the water for their own cure or who took a small vial home for someone close. If this spring is like many others around Ireland, Wales and parts of England, it was known for its power even before Christianity was known in the land. They are in the transition zone between sea and mountain. Thin places carried power. They were places of encounter with the divine.