Born in the late 6th century, St Aelhaearn was probably a disciple of St Beuno, since his three churches are all close to churches linked with Beuno. When Beuno founded a monastery at Clynnog Fawr, Aelhaearn founded his own church nearby at Llanaelhaearn.
Aelhaearn’s name was mis-translated as ‘Iron Eyebrow’, as explained in a legend which told how Beuno once brought Aelhaearn back to life. In the version of this legend given by John Ray in the mid-17th century, Beuno would walk the 4 miles to Llanaelhaearn during the night and pray kneeling on a stone in the river – the kneeprints were in later years shown as proof of this. Once Aelhaearn followed in secret to watch what he did, and was torn apart by wild beasts. When Beuno realised who it was who had been killed, he reassembled all the bones and brought him back to life, and the only part missing was an eyebrow, which he replaced with the iron of his pikestaff, hence the disciple’s name. Aelhaearn was, in fact, said to be only one of six or seven people whom Beuno restored to life.
Thomas Pennant (1726-98, Welsh antiquarian, naturalist, traveller and writer) visited Llanaelhaearn during one of his tours through Wales in the late 18th century and mentioned ‘a fine well, once much frequented for its reputed sanctity.’ So it would seem that even by that time the well was no longer in great repute. More than 100 years later, Baring-Gould and Fisher noted that ‘there are seats of stone ranged along the sides for the accommodation of the patients awaiting the “troubling of the waters”, when they might step in, full of confidence, in expectation of a cure.’ However this custom had clearly ceased by the time they wrote of it, since they had noted the locked door. The ‘troubling of the waters’ is a Biblical reference to the Pool of Siloam in Jerusalem: sick people would wait for an angel to stir the waters, and the first person to step in would be cured. The Reverend Elias Owen, who visited and wrote about holy wells in North Wales in the late 19th century, saw the intermittent welling up of the water, ‘full of sparkling bubbles’, when he visited the well before it was roofed and locked. He wrote of ‘a square bath with a low wall, and a flagged path surrounds it.’ His companion Archdeacon Evans said he should consult the well as to his future, and said that if the water bubbled up while he walked round it, it was a good omen. Owen did this, ‘and immediately the water seemed to laugh and smile, being covered with bubbles.’ He supposed it was caused by the vibration from his walking, but the Archdeacon said not, and walked round himself: ‘there was not a ripple on the placid surface of the water.’ Locally it was known as ‘the Laughing Well’.
When I saw this well it was a depressing sight, enclosed in a stone wall and with a wooden door firmly padlocked, the water now inaccessible. At one time it supplied the village with water. One hundred years ago it was described by Baring-Gould and Fisher as ‘an oblong trough of good pure water’, though they also noted that it had been walled and roofed in 1900 after an outbreak of diphtheria, and that the entrance was kept locked even then. Hughes and North visited the well in the 1920s and recorded its dimensions as 19 ft 6 in by 18 ft 4 in, with a water surface of 13 ft by 7 ft. The well was visited by members of the Cambrian Archaeological Association in 1926 and they were not happy with what they saw: ‘It has been connected with the village water supply and utterly spoilt by raising the walls and covering it with a flat concrete roof.’ A Royal Commission inspector, writing in 1960, surmised that ‘the basin and surrounding stone bench are probably medieval’. Despite being closed, the well is clearly well maintained, with restoration work carried out in the late 20th century.
Location: SH38424462. 400 m south-west of Llanaelhaearn church, beside the B4417 to Llithfaen.
Sources: Aelhaearn’s history: Baring-Gould and Fisher, I, 109-12; Bartrum, 4.
Eyebrow legend: John Ray, Itineraries, 228-30.
Descriptions of the well: Jones (1954), 108, 147; Pennant (1883), 384; Baring-Gould and Fisher, I, 112; Archwilio: Gwynedd PRN 2232; Coflein NPRN 32188; Hughes and North (1984), 283-4, 307; ‘Excursion I, August 1926’, Arch. Camb., vol.81 (1926), 434; RCI Caern, vol.II, no.1087, p.111; Owen (1893), 278-9; Bond (2017), 122-6; photographs on website https://wellhopper.wales
Pool of Bethesda: www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pool_of_Siloam
1990s Restoration: www.ffynhonnaucymru.org.uk/llanaelhaearn.htm
