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Sacred Well
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Don't dismiss this as a purely Roman experience (though that's fascinating in itself - heretic) - it really gets your imagination fired up and you can conjure up something of the place before the Romans arrived.
The 'Sacred Spring' bubbles away in its blue-green pool, and mist floats eerily over the surface. How amazing this place would have been without the stone round it, probably surrounded by dark alder trees, the odd willow the wisp? The Romans knew it was already revered, and although they built a huge temple and bath complex around it, they at least took on board the beliefs of the native peoples by calling it Sulis Minerva - combining the resident goddess's name with a similar deity of their own.
So many tourists come through here, but the place is remarkably quiet - everyone has a hand-held guide and they're listening to that, so if you just sit by the main baths it's really very peaceful and relaxing. You're not supposed to touch the water but you really must to appreciate how hot it is. When you lean over the drain (in one of the photos above) it's quite a sauna! and the bright orange of the iron is dazzling.
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Posted by Rhiannon
28th November 2002ce
Edited 19th June 2006ce
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