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Hillfort
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If you want to walk to the top of Garn Bentyrch, the footpath will take you straight past Ffynnon Gybi, a holy well, which emerges on the south east side of the hill.Ffynnon Gybi, or St. Cybi's Well, in the parish of Llangybi [..] there the girls who wished to know their lover's intentions would spread their pocket-handkerchiefs on the water of the well, and, if the water pushed the handkerchiefs to the south - in Welsh i'r de - they knew that everything was right - in Welsh o dde - and that their lovers were honest and honourable in their intentions; but, if the water shifted the handkerchiefs northwards, they concluded the contrary. A reference to this is made in severe terms by a modern Welsh poet, as follows:-
Ambell ddyn, gwaelddyn, a gyrch
I bant goris Moel Bentyrch,
Mewn gobaith mai hen Gybi
Glodfawr sydd yn llwyddaw'r lli.
Some folks, worthless folks, visit
A hollow below Moel Bentyrch,
In hopes that ancient Kybi
Of noble fame blesses the flood. From 'Sacred Wells in Wales' by John Rhys and T. E. Morris, in
Folklore, Vol. 4, No. 1 (Mar., 1893), pp. 55-79.
T E Morris added: "I was [..] at Llangybi, in Carnarvonshire, about two years ago, and saw Ffynnon Gybi (St. Cybi's Well), which lies in a small dale near the parish church, and had been walled in and flagged. It is a large square well, and was formerly very much resorted to by persons suffering from rheumatism and other complaints. To effect a cure it was necessary to bathe in the well; and the building adjoining, the ruins of which remain, was possibly used by the suffers."
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Posted by Rhiannon
10th March 2009ce
Edited 10th March 2009ce
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