St. John’s Well, whither Mrs. Dogherty journeyed  to take her rounds, lies at the foot of a hill, about  three miles from Ennis, and dose to it is a rude altar,  at which the superstitious offer up their prayers.  The water of this, like other holy wells, is believed to possess the power of restoring the use of the limbs, curing defective vision, &c. Near the well there is a  small lough, said to be the abode of a strange kind  of fish or mermaid, which used to appear very frequently. This lady of the lake was observed resorting to the cellar of Newhall, the seat of Mr. McDonall.  The butler, perceiving the wine decrease rapidly, determined, with some of his fellow-servants, to watch for the thief, and at last they caught the mermaid in the fact of drinking it. The enraged butler threw her into a chaldron [sic] of boiling water, when she vanished, after uttering three piercing shrieks, leaving only a mass of jelly behind. Since that period, her appearances have been restricted to once in every seven years.  [Crofton-Croker II, 54]