The parish of Clontubrid is mentioned in a list of parishes in the Red Book of Ossory, but no ancient church survives. The date of the well house is not known, but the finial may have come from the nearby church at Freshford.
Dunraven showed the finial loose, beside the Holy Well at Clontubrid. Leask published the fragment as 'crowning the Holy Well at Freshford'. His illustration appears to be identical except that it does not show the triangular projection at the right side of the finial. Similar heart-shaped finials are found at Iniscealtra (Clare), St.Macdara's Island (Galway) and Kilmalkedar (Kerry). The date is uncertain, but it could be pre-Romanesque or Romanesque.