St Non's Well

Set on windswept cliffs a short walk south of St Davids, St Non's Well is said to have burst from the earth at the exact moment of St David's birth, around 500 CE. His mother Non — a Pembrokeshire princess who gave birth during a violent thunderstorm at the site now marked by the ruined chapel of St Non — is venerated across Welsh and Breton Christianity, and the spring that sprang in that moment became one of the most important pilgrimage destinations in medieval Wales.

The healing tradition attached to the well is highly specific. It was held to be particularly effective for eye complaints — a convention often attached to waters associated with miraculous births — and accounts from 1811 record that 'the fame this consecrated spring has obtained is incredible and it is still resorted to for many complaints.' The well was restored in 1951 by the Catholic Church, which erected a small shrine using stones from the medieval chapel ruins alongside. The site's most popular visiting day was St Non's Day, the 2nd of March.

The Cadw-listed ruins of the Chapel of St Non stand next to the well and are thought to mark the actual birth site; a standing stone within the former chapel walls may indicate a pre-Christian sacred character absorbed into the saint's legend. Unlike many holy wells that survive only as archaeological features, St Non's Well continues to attract active devotion: modern pilgrims leave offerings in the water throughout the year, and the coexistence of a Neolithic stone, a ruined medieval chapel, and a living spring makes this one of the most layered sacred sites in Pembrokeshire — and one of the few where the founding legend is still enacted in practice.