An excerpt from the book SACRED WELLS by Gary R. Varner. Gary Varner's new book, Water of Life--Water of Death, is available from Publish America and all online booksellers. Menhirs, Dolmen and Circles of Stone: The Folklore and Magic of Sacred Stone published by Algora publishers is also now available.

There are as many myths and legends surrounding sacred wells and waters as there are sacred wells and waters! Many wells have a multitude of tories and traditions centered around them while others just have elusive snippets of ancient lore.

Diraldus Cambrensis, also known as Gerald of Wales, wrote an account of the wonders of Ireland for Henry II in 1185 (1) containing some of the mythology of sacred wells. While his accounts may be fanciful, they do illustrate the mystery surrounding these holy sites.

“There is a well in Munster and if anyone washes in its waters, he immediately turns grey. I saw a man who had washed there one part of his beard. It had turned grey, while the other part retained its natural dark colour. On the other hand there is a well in Leinster and if a man washes in it, he will not get greyer. There is a well of sweet water in Connacht on the top of a high mountain and some distance from the sea, which in any one day ebbs and overflows three times, imitating the ebbing and flowing of the sea. …There is a well in the far north of Ulster which is so cold that if logs of wood are left in it for seven years, they harden so as to become stones.

“There is a well in Munster, and if one touches or even looks at it, the whole province is deluged with rain. The rain will not cease until a priest, who is a virgin in mind and body and especially chosen for the purpose, celebrates Mass in a chapel not far from the well…and appeases the well with a sprinkling of holy water and the milk of a cow of one colour. This is certainly a barbarous rite, without rime or reason.” (2)

Gerald also spoke of a well in Brittany that would create a shower of rain which only falls on the individual who, while drinking from the well out of the horn of an ox, happens to spill some of the water on a nearby stone, “even though the sky be ever so clear from rain”.

In addition Gerald wrote: “there is in Sicily a well of a wonderful nature. If anyone approaches it clad in a red garment, a column of water immediately shoots up from the well to the height of the person. …if the person in red departs, it resumes its ordinary dimensions, and returns to its former channels.” (3)

This legend seems to mirror that of a far older one of The Well of Segais, or Conlai’s Well. The nine hazel trees of wisdom grew over the Well Of Segais and the hazel nuts would fall into the well causing bubbles of mystic inspiration. Only The Dagda, the Good God, and his three-cup bearers were allowed to drink from the well. One day Boann, his wife, disobeyed and she drank from it as well. At that instant the waters rose high above the well, chased Boann and drowned her. The waters formed the river Boann, or Boyne, of today. (4)

E. Estyn Evans wrote of a well in Inishmurray Ireland that was regarded as a “wind-well” “which has the power of controlling the wind, the ritual being to empty the well to produce a calm.” (5) Another well with the ability to either create a storm or to produce calmness was at Inishkea in county Mayo. This well was buried by order of the Bishop of Tuam in 1640 “for weighty reasons”.

Up through the 19th century during times of drought people would visit Gellionen Well in Glamorgan, Wales. They would throw or scatter the well water, dance near the well on a nearby green spot and throw flowers and herbs at each other with the result always being rain. (6)

Another legend tying natural phenomenon to a particular holy well is the well at Sliab Seact in Ireland. In 1938 Clonmany resident James Doherty, then 70 years of age, told of the well which “if anybody goes near it and muddies it, a mist will come and they will go astray and will be lost until the fog clears away”. (7)

Holy wells have certain other aspects of their “behavior” which have esulted in other legends of paranormal occurrences. One of these is that of St. Nunn’s or St. Ninnie’s Well in Cornwall in the parish of Pelynt:

“An old farmer…once set his eyes upon the granite basin (of St. Nunn’s Well) and coveted it, for it was no wrong in his eyes to convert the holy font to the base uses of a Pigsty and accordingly he drove his oxen and wain to the gateway above for the purpose of removing it. Taking his beasts to the entrance of the well, he essayed to drag the trough from its ancient bed. For a long time it resisted the efforts of the oxen, but at length they succeeded in starting it, and dragged it slowly up the hillside to where the wain was standing. Here, however, it burst away from the chains that held it, and, rolling back again to the well, made a sharp turn and regained its old positions, where it has remained ever since. Nor will anyone again attempt its removal, seeing that the farmer, who was previously well to do in the world, never prospered from that day forward. Some people say, indeed, that retribution overtook him on the spot, the oxen falling dead, and the owner being struck lame and speechless”. (8)

Stories about other moving stones are also common in Ireland. Patrick Logan, in his book The Holy Wells of Ireland, relates the tale of a heavy altar slab located near Tobar na Mult in County Kerry:

“…the story is that an enemy (Cromwellian) once used an ox cart to take it away from the well. When the cart had got as far as Bullock Hill, it stopped and the oxen refused to move it any further, so it was left on the spot until the next morning. Then, to the surprise of some people, the stone was found to have moved back to its original place near the well.” (9)

Other “homing stones” are reported to exist at Gorman, near Malin Head in County Donegal, Kilultagh, County Roscommon, Aghabulloge parish and Loch Hyne, County Cork and Aghinagh parish, also in County Cork. The homing stone at Aghinagh Parish is a large flat stone, probably an ancient food grinding stone due to a worn hollow area in the center, located near the Tobar a’Noonan well. Logan wrote, “the stone, which is very large and heavy, was removed and built into a wall, but was found back at the well in the morning.” (10)

Another homing stone is at St. Olan’s Well, Dromatimore, County Cork. This mysterious stone is an oval quartzite that rests on an ogrham-inscribed monolith. This stone was said to cure a variety of “feminine aliments” and, if worn on the head and carried around the local church three times also cured migraines. According to one authority, “it had the gift of locomotion in that, if removed to any distance, it unfailingly returned to its original position.” (11)

Some holy wells are also said to move if they become polluted in some manner. Tobar Lastra, which means “the well of light”, located in the parish of Donnaghmoyne, Ireland was said to have moved several yards across a meadow after a local Protestant washed his dog at the well. Another Protestant caused yet another well to move in County Roscommon when he washed a child in the well. While this does not appear to be a serious offense considering the physical wounds that are washed in holy wells, the well moved to another location leaving only an ugly hole in the ground where no water will collect. In 1936, according to legend, a little girl and boy were playing at St. Columcille’s Well in Conmany, Ireland and accidentally “dirtied the well”. It is said that the next day the well had moved to another location.

In Wales it is said that the Shee Well once “ran away”. The legend tells of a band of robbers who lived nearby and who preyed upon travelers, often murdering them. The waters of the rivers flowing near their den became tainted with blood and the Shee Well disappeared into the hills until the thieves pledged to till the fields and mow the meadows. At that the Shee Well returned, its water pure once again.

St. Nunn’s Well, mentioned previously, was also the object of pin offerings, said to placate the “Piskies” or Pixies of the site. Today St. Nunn’s Well is also known as Piskie’s Well and by such offerings of pins it is said that the Piskies will help farmers be successful with their farms. (12)

Another “Pixy Well” was said to exist at Crowcombe in Somerset with the associated pin offerings. A not-so-nice spirit was said to reside in the River Tees in Durham near Pierse-bridge. Called “Peg Powler”, the spirit or water nymph would drag children into the depths of the river if they were naughty, especially on Sunday. It would seem that this myth was more a means used by parents to keep their children out of the treacherous river rather than a true and ancient legend.

Piskies, Pixies, Elves, Faeries and Nymphs are common residents of sacred wells and waterways. Sometimes these Sprites and Faeries also became Christianized by the new religious order in Britain. St. Neot was said to be only 15 inches tall. He spent his days immersed in the well praying and performing miracles with birds and other animals.

Faeries were also thought to reside at the Virtuous Well, also known as St. Anne’s Well located near Trellech Village in Wales. One story is that a local farmer dug up a “fairy ring” around the well to prove to others that he did not believe in “them silly tales”. However, the next day when he attempted to draw water out of the well it was dry! But it was only dry when he tried to obtain water. A little old man, presumably a fairie, was seen sitting on the well one day and told the farmer that he was very irritated about the destruction of the fairie ring and that the water would never be available to the farmer until the faery ring was restored. As soon as the farmer put the ring back the water once again flowed freely.

As far back as 860 C.E., according to the Archbishop of Rheims, people claimed to see images of well entities on the water surface and to even speak with them. As expected the Archbishop called these entities “demons”. In addition lost “fairy cities” were also seen in the waters of Lough Neagh in Ireland.

It was said that St. Mary’s Well at Grampian was associated with the white witch Dame Aliset who cured a faery child with the well’s healing water.

Puck’s Well is another that has retained its original character through time. Today merely a muddy and foul-smelling bog, its legends speak of a much more active history. While most holy wells have been Christianized over time and renamed for particular saints, Puck’s Well has escaped the gradual shift from Pagan to Christian. Originally called puca-wielle, or “spring of the goblin”, (13) Puck’s Well is also regarded as the Devil’s Well. However, Puck was not the Devil that the Christians thought. Puck was associated with Faery rings and dancing and mischievous goings on. Goblins actually were beneficent to the local population. Old legends tell of these beings performing drudgery work such as drawing water, cutting wood, cleaning houses and even leaving money in shoes. However one had to maintain the good will of the goblin or bad luck would occur. Puck was also said to haunt places of heinous crimes with howling, mad laughter or strange lights. Puck has long been associated with wells. Puck Wells are found also in Somerset, Wiltshire, Northamptonshire as well as in Ireland.

Another well with associations to the Devil is Chattle Hole south of Warminster. Here, it is said, while a chapel was being built, each morning the workers would return to find all of the stones, which had been used the prior day, returned to the bottom of the hill. (14) In addition the well at Ffynnon Gloch in Cardinganshire, Wales is said to be a spot where the devil “rested”. The bells of the nearby church are said to ring silently due to the evil that surrounds the area.

Some wells, which are located near standing stones, have different tales. Our Lady’s Well located at Lower Swell in the Cotswolds has a legend that at midnight the “Wittlestone” (one of the standing stones nearby) walks to the well to drink. (15) This is not an isolated tale. There have been 39 tales of standing stones moving, dancing or bowing to nearby wells in England and Wales in the 20th century. Twenty of those 39 tell of stones going to the nearest well to drink or bathe and 27 of the 39 are said to go into action at midnight.

Dragons also have a long history of lurking about wells in Europe. Nykerpole, or nicor-pool (16) is one such place. First recorded in 1272 near Marlborough but now lost, the well was home to a monster similar to a sea serpent. Another similar place is Knucker Holes in Sussex where a great monster was said to crawl up out if the depths to terrorize the local population.

In County Durham at Penshaw, a well still exists at the foot of Worm Hill the home of the Lambton “worm”. (17) Supposedly this terrifying serpent was caught by a fisherman who, when he caught it, “flung it into a well close by”. Over the years it continued to grow until it filled the well. It moved to the river where it made periodic attacks on the local populace, “worried the cattle, devoured the lambs, and committed every sort of depredation in the helpless peasantry”. (18) When the “worm” did not receive the food it desired it would “break out into a violent rage”, tearing trees up by their roots. The local good knight consulted a “sibyl”, or witch, who instructed him on the best methods to defeat the beast. The monster was eventually killed by the knight who cut it in two. “Worm Well”, as it was known in the 1890’s, was a wishing well which received pins as a votive offering. In Longwitton (also written as Long Witton), Northumberland, a monster kept people from three holy wells until it, too, was slain. A lone knight, Guy, Earl of Warwick, valiantly fought the Longwitton Dragon but no matter how many times he caused severe wounds to the beast they healed instantly. For three days they fought until the knight saw that the dragon kept the tip of his tail in one of the wells—ensuring that its wounds would heal due to the healing waters of the well. The knight retreated step by step until the monster, closely following, was free of the well and was able to be killed. (19) These stories are somewhat contrary to other traditions, which said that to kill or remove these guardians would result in dire consequences, usually a widespread epidemic. Other wells with dragons, serpents or Griffin’s are Griffydam, (also known as Griffy Well) in Leicestershire, the spring of Ares near Thebes, Greece and, of course, Loch Ness in Scotland. According to Sir James Frazer (20) during the 16th century in Burford, Oxfordshire, the effigy of a large dragon was carried up and down the streets during the Midsummer Eve festivities.

Hauntings near holy wells are also common throughout Great Britain. In Devonshire at Cranmere Pool weird wailing is heard supposedly from unhappy spirits who have been confined there as a punishment (21) and, at Cat’s Well at Bratton (named after St. Catherine), a huge black dog is said to haunt the area. Another black hound is at Dean Combe in a well known as The Pool of the Black Hound. At this site a spirit was condemned by the parish Vicar to scoop out the pool with a shell with a hole in it and was told that it could not rest until the pool was emptied. Hope wrote that “at mid-day or at midnight the hound may still be seen at its work”. (22)

The three deep pits known as Hell-Kettles in Darlington Parish, England are also said to contain the “soules of sinfull men and women in them”. These three pits were reported to be bottomless with hot water and that the souls of these “sinfull” men and women “have oft beene harde to cry and yell about them”.

The waters of some wells are said to have the power to turn ordinary items into stone. Gerald of Wales wrote of a well in Norway:

“if wood…flax or a linen web be placed in it (the well) for a year, it becomes very hard stone. Because of this a certain bishop of Norway was able to bring back to Waldem’ar, king of Denmark in our time, a napkin which he had taken from him the year before for the purpose of proving the fact referred to. …The middle part, having been placed in the well, was a stone, but the rest of it remained as before…”. (23)

In 1664 M. Mackaile noted in his The Oyly-well or, A Topographico-Spagyrical description of the Oyly-well, at St. Catherines-chappel in the Paroch of Libberton (24) that water from a certain well in Scotland “should, in a short time, be converted into a stone”.

It has been previously mentioned that some stones at wells refuse to be moved by humans without returning to their original positions. So too some carved images appear to have a “homing” instinct. Jean Markale described in his book The Great Goddess a statue supposedly uncovered during an excavation of a Temple of Mars at Saint-Lizier which “after being taken to the main church, returned to its original place each night”. (25) A similar occurrence has been recorded at St. Maelruan’s Well in Ballynaleck. W.H. Grattan-Flood told the first story concerning this well in a talk at St. Peter’s College in Wexford in 1902:

“In the year 1750 a man who lived in the neighborhood has a striking dream in which he was urged by some superior spirit to go and explore St. Maelruan’s well in which there was something remarkable concealed. This dream recurred on three nights. The man visited the well, and in the course of his explorations, he came across a strange looking statute or effigy of a person carefully hidden in the well.”

According to Grattan-Flood, who examined the statue, it was carved of black oak and even after repeated attempts the statute has never been able to be removed from the boundaries of the parish where it was discovered.

The village of Wark, located in Northumberland, has three wells, Upper or High Well, Lower or Riverside Well, and the old Kirk Well. It was the practice of the residents of Wark to visit the wells on New Year’s morning to be the first to drink of the wells on the first day of the year. It was believed that the individual, who did drink the “Flower of the Well”, as the first drink was called, would gain supernatural powers that would last the whole year. Among those powers was the ability to pass through keyholes and to take nocturnal flights. The fortunate person who accomplished the feat would throw flowers, grass, hay or straw into the well so that the others, less fortunate, would know that the Flower of the Well had already been won. (26)

Ghostly “women in white” are also associated with holy wells and marshes. Marie Trevelyan noted in her book Folk-lore and Folk-stories of Wales published in 1909, that Wales, in common with England, has innumerable white ladies, and every county of the Principality has several of these apparitions”. Markale wrote that “marshes are strange places where life and death are continually mixing with each other and delicate exchanges between dissolution and regeneration take place. …It is in caves near springs or rivers, where likewise the atmosphere is humid and full of water vapor, that the mysterious “white ladies” appear…”. (27) Markale believes that natural radioactivity, magnetic currents or other natural phenomenon are responsible for these apparitions. Whatever the cause, natural or supernatural phenomenon, St. Julian’s Well in Wellow, Somerset has a history of visitations by “the White Lady” when a calamity was about to happen to the former owners of the well. More than likely these “White Ladies” are not the products of natural phenomenon but create it. They are archetypal images of pagan goddesses, which periodically become evident near sacred sites.

In two instances these mysterious Ladies in White have been seen scattering flowers or seeds in fields. In both instances the flowers or seeds had turned to golden coins the next morning.

In Germany the Goddess Sirona was widely venerated. A wooden carving of Sirona was found in a Roman well at Pforzheim. The holy waters at Alzay were dedicated to Venus, Sirona and the Sun God Grannos in 223 C.E. Other wells and springs were dedicated to Minerva and the goddess of the Black Forest, Diana Abnorba.

Another ghostly woman in gray or white has been recorded at St. Dene’s Well near Cardiff, Wales. She reportedly would follow drovers for about a mile through the Llanishen neighborhood before she would return to the well. It was thought that she had done evil in her time and was in bondage to the well as punishment.

St. Patrick is credited with turning a woman into one of the white ladies at Llyn Gwyn, a lake in Wales. According to Trevelyan, (28) St. Patrick and another, unnamed saint, were arguing about religion when St. Patrick became enraged. He saw several people standing nearby who had overheard the argument and turned them into fish but another woman he turned into a white lady who “was often seen accompanied by flashes of light.”

Not only Ladies in White or Gray have been reported but Ladies in Green as well. One such Green Lady was reported to watch pilgrims place rags on a thorn bush at the Eye-Well near St. Donat’s in Marcloss, Wales. Another was seen in the village of Woodrow in Buckinghamshire. According to the witness a wraith-like figure dressed in green was seen gliding across a meadow leaving a path of green phosphorescent light until she disappeared suddenly. The witness pressed himself through the underbrush at the spot and found an ancient grotto—but no Lady was in evidence.

A number of goddesses are directly associated with holy wells in Ireland. Among them are Aibheaog whose sacred well had powerful healing properties effective against toothaches, Brid, or Bridget whose ancient shrine is still maintained at Kildare, Finchoem who is more a guardian of wells but who is associated with childbirth (she swallowed a worm crawling over a magickal well and conceived), Liban, another guardian of Ireland’s wells who was able to take the form of the sacred salmon, and Sionnan, Queen of Wells and namesake for the River Shannon. Momu, was the Goddess of Wells in Scotland.

Water goddesses (29) are certainly not confined to Great Britain. Chalchiuhtlicue, the virgin-mother goddess of the Aztecs, was known as a “’Lady of the Lake’, a goddess of streams and of the sea” (30) and the related water plants. Symbols of this goddess are the snake and frog (which is a common theme in holy wells in Britain and usually said to represent the devil) and an ancient water pot. This water pot is symbolic of her life-giving powers.

Chalchiuhtlicue, like other goddesses of water, was also a healer. She is depicted with herbs in the Codex Borgia and a mountain called Yauhqueme (“covered with mugwort”) was said to be her home.

Fish, especially trout and salmon, have a special association with holy wells. These fish living in holy wells were thought to possess both eternal life and wisdom; they were the holders of the knowledge of the gods and the Otherworld. We should remember that the fish is and was a universal symbol of the Great Goddess and was taken as a symbol of Jesus and Christianity by the early church authorities to remove a totally Pagan symbol of faith. According to Celtic tradition, fish were thought to be the spirit of a transformed human being that had been trapped in a well and turned into the magical salmon or trout—transformed to become the guardian spirit of that well throughout time.

Other wells with magical fish are St. Neot’s in Cornwall and St. Corentine’s Well in Brittany, Kilbride on the Isle of Skye, Gleneig of Iverness, St. Bean’s Well in Argyle, Llandelay in Pembrokeshire and at Ffynnon Weneg at Cardiganshire.

Charles Squire noted that only the Salmon had the privilege of “knowing everything that was in the world. (The) divine salmon who lived in the well, and swallowed the (hazel) nuts as they dropped from the trees into the water, and thus knew all things, and appear in legend as the ‘Salmons of Knowledge’.” (31)

Today in some of the small villages of Ireland, a fish in a well is still regarded as a good omen. Messenger, in his ethnographic study of the people living on a small Irish island, wrote that “those who come to the spring always seek a tiny fish or eel in the water, which, if observed, is merely a good omen to some but an assurance of reaching Heaven to others.” (32) The salmon, along with the eel, trout and other water creatures, embodied the wisdom of the Goddess as well as Her healing powers. Fish or eels residing in such wells provided the healing power and without them the power would fade. Some legends indicate that these sacred fish only became visible at midnight and those lucky enough to see them were granted their prayers. Similar Christianized traditions state that only for one hour after midnight on St. Brigid’s feast day were the healing wells of Ireland able to cure any form of disease. Three mysterious trout were said to inhabit St. Ciaran’s Well in County Meath but were only visible for a few seconds at midnight on the first Sunday in August when they disappeared until the same time the next year.

If the sacred fish at Tyn Y Ffynnon showed themselves while someone bathed in or drank the well’s water a cure was believed to be inevitable, but if the fish stayed hidden, no change would occur in the individual’s condition.

Guardian fish were thought to be in the Golden Well near St. Peter’s Church in Herefordshire (a carving of the fish is still located on the wall inside the church), and Bromere Pool in Shropshire. Human-like guardians also appear to be common at many wells and they may, in fact, be the spirits of those wells.

CHAPTER NOTES
1. Gerald of Wales. The History and Topography of Ireland. Translated by John O’Meara. London: Penguin Books, 1982

2. ibid, 62-63

3. ibid, 63

4. Ellis, Peter Berresford. The Druids. Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1994, 131

5. Evans, E. Estyn. Irish Folk Ways. Mineola: Dover Books 2000, 302 (A reprint of the 1957 edition published by Routledge & Keegan Paul, Ltd., London)

6. Trevelyan, Marie. Folk-Lore and Folk-Stories of Wales. London: Elliot Stocl 1909

7. Doherty, Mary. “Holy Wells”, a Clonmany school manuscript, 1938

8. Hope, Robert Charles. The Legendary Lore of the Holy Wells of England. London: Elliot Stock, 1893

9. Logan, Patrick. The Holy Wells of Ireland. Buckinghamshire: Colin Smythe 1980, 102

10. Ibid. 103

11. Evans, E. Estyn. op cit, 301

12. Anderton, Bill. Guide to Ancient Britain. Berkshire: W. Foulsham & Co., Ltd., 1991, 199

13. Jordan, Katy. ”Wiltshire Wells”, www.bath.ac.uk/~liskmj/wellsweb/wellstxt.htm, 1999

14. ibid

15. Hope, op cit.

16. Jordan, op cit

17. “Worm” (Middle English) or “Wyrm” (Anglo-Saxon) meaning “serpent” or “dragon”

18. Hunt, Laurence. “Some Ancient Wells, Springs & Holy Wells of the Cotswolds”, in The Source, Issue #2, Winter 1994

19. Briggs, Katherine. British Folktales. New York: Pantheon Books, 1977, 147-149

20. Frazer, Sir James. The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion. Hertforshire: Wordsworth Editions, 1993, 655

21. Cleaver, Alan. “Holy Wells: Wormholes in Reality?” part I in The Source, Issue #3, November 1985 and part II, The Source, Issue #4, March 1986

22. Hope, op cit

23. Gerald of Wales, op cit, 62

24. Mackaile, M. The Oyly-well: Or, A Topographico-Spagyrical description of the Oyly-well, at St. Catherines-chappel in the Paroch of Libberton. Edinburgh: Robert Brown, 1664

25. Markale, Jean. The Great Goddess: Reverence of the Divine Feminine From The Paleolithic to the Present. Translated from the French by Jody Gladding. Rochester: Inner Traditions, 1999, 92

26. Hope, op cit

27. Markale, op cit., 33, 34

28. Trevelyan, op. Cit.

29. There are also Gods of the Water as seen with Poseidon/Neptune, Noden, Burmanos, the God of Seething Water and Hot Springs, and Nectan, the Celtic God of Waters and Healing. Enki was the Summerian “God of Sweet Waters” as well as the God of wisdom, fertility, magick and the arts and crafts of civilization. The elements of Enki’s character are identical to the sacred characteristics of holy wells and streams—fertility, life and wisdom.

30. MacKenzie, Donald A. Pre-Columbian America: Myths and Legends. London: Senate 1996, 197 (a reprint of the 1923 publication, Myths of Pre-Columbian America, published by The Gresham Publishing Company)

31. Squire, Charles. Celtic Myths & Legends. New York: Portland House, reprinted 1994, 55

32. Messenger, John C. Inis Beag: Isle of Ireland. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Case Studies in Cultural Anthropology 1969, 97