Holy Wells of Wales

Holy Wells and Sacred Springs in Wales

There are around 900 wells and springs in Wales with links to the Christian religion, most often seen in their names, as so many of them are named for Christian saints; and there are several hundred additional named wells and springs without any apparent religious connection. Records of named wells are hard to find before 1500, though many of the wells probably already existed long before that date. There are no reliable records relating to the earliest springs that became holy wells, but many of those named for saints probably began to be revered soon after the saints’ deaths as their cults grew. These wells would have been an important part of a local saint’s landscape, which would also include other features named for him or her, such as a stone chair or bed, all sites centred around the saint’s llan or enclosure where first a simple chapel, and later a church, was built. The settlement that grew up round the church would also be named for the saint, for example Llanfwrog, the settlement of St Mwrog.
Although these water sources (ffynnon in Welsh, plural ffynhonnau) are known in English as wells, they are not in this instance deep wells such as were dug to provide domestic supplies. They are actually natural springs, sometimes in their original state, but very often enhanced by the addition of some kind of stone structure. They were clearly important both for their ability to provide water but also because their numinous nature led them to be regarded as sacred places where one could perhaps find a link with a spiritual world beyond the mundane. Hence they became linked with the sainted personages who travelled the land in their quest to gather the people into the fold of the Christian religion, such holy men and women being revered by the country dwellers who were drawn to their life-enhancing message.
Not all wells and springs had links with Christianity, however, and many were just used for domestic water supplies. A considerable number were believed to have healing powers. In earlier centuries medicine was primitive and doctors in short supply, and people were left to their own devices if they wanted to heal the many ailments to which they were prey. Cold water immersion is still known to be health-giving, and in past centuries the use of natural spring water to bring about healing for a wide range of ailments was exceedingly common. And of course the well would be considered even more therapeutic if it was linked to the healing power of a saint.
It is not my intention to investigate how the individual springs became holy wells, and in fact contemporary records of such events are non-existent, all that survives being local folklore and accounts in the individual saints’ Lives, though these are not contemporaneous with the actual events but written several hundred years later, mostly in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, and therefore are also legendary rather than factual. I have chosen the most interesting wells for this collection, and within the accounts will be found much more information on the saints’ involvement as imagined by their followers in later centuries, together with a variety of rural folklore, and more modern records of how the wells and their water were used for healing.
My sources are given at the end of each entry, with fuller details of the abbreviated sources to be found in the Bibliography at the end of all the entries. I have provided location information in those instances where the well is still accessible, though sometimes they have been deliberately filled in or may have simply dried up naturally, or their exact location lost through lack of use.
A note on well names
Most of the wells described here are named for saints, and they are presented in alphabetical order of the saints’ names. In Wales the correct name form used for centuries is, for example, Ffynnon Ddyfnog (saint’s name Dyfnog with correct Welsh-language mutation), or in English, St Dyfnog’s Well. But an inaccurate name form is now creeping in, Ffynnon Sant Dyfnog, for example, where the English name has been translated literally (and possibly with a desire not to ‘offend’ the saint by omitting his or her ‘title’?). The rare historical examples where ‘saint’ has been intruded date from the medieval period and denote that the saint in question was non-native, for example St Ffraid (the same as the Irish Brigid or Bride) is often given as Sanffraid, and examples of wells and place-names include ‘Pistyll San ffred’ (Nevern, Pembrokeshire, 1418) and Llansantffraed (Ceredigion).

St Anne’s Well

Ffynnon Aelhaearn