Holy Wells & Healing Springs

Sacred springs bridge the pre-Christian and the Christian: waters dedicated to a saint yet visited with offerings, rags and pins in the old way, sought for healing of the eyes, of children and of the sick. Many keep a guardian tradition — a fish, a saint or a spirit whose favour the water depends upon.

DeitiesSulisBath, SomersetA Celtic goddess of healing waters whose sacred spring at Bath was so powerful the Romans built a great temple around it, naming her Sulis Minerva. Thousands of curse tablets were cast into her waters — prayers, pleas and vengeance. GhostsThe Pump Hill SmugglerHappisburgh, Norfolk, EnglandA headless, legless smuggler — his head dangling between his shoulders — still drags a sack of plunder through Happisburgh, groaning from an old well before every storm. Sacred SitesWiltshire MoonrakersWiltshireSmugglers caught raking a moonlit pond told excise men they were fishing for a round cheese — the moon's reflection. The officers laughed and rode on; Wiltshire has worn 'Moonraker' as a badge of cunning ever since. Sacred SitesWinchester Round TableWinchester Great Hall, HampshireA massive oak tabletop hanging in Winchester Great Hall, long venerated as King Arthur's original Round Table. Dendrochronology dates it to around 1250-1280, made under Edward I — a king so devoted to the Arthurian legend he hosted Round Table tournaments himself. The current paintwork was ordered by Henry VIII. Sacred SitesWitches' WellEdinburghThe Witches' Well is a monument to accused witches burned at the stake in Edinburgh, Scotland, and is the only one of its kind in the city. GhostsY Ladi WenOgmore Castle, Vale of Glamorgan, WalesThe White Lady of Welsh tradition — a death-omen apparition that appears at wells, crossroads, and ancient ruins on dark nights, sometimes asking for a hand to hold. Those who see her are marked; those who give her their hand may not return.
← Browse all legends