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The Fairy Well

Sacred Well

<b>The Fairy Well</b>Posted by goffikImage © Graham Orriss
This site is of disputed antiquity. If you have any information that could help clarify this site's authenticity, please post below or leave a post in the forum.
Nearest Town:St Ives (Cornwall) (2km WNW)
OS Ref (GB):   SW536386 / Sheet: 203
Latitude:50° 11' 43.47" N
Longitude:   5° 27' 10.24" W

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<b>The Fairy Well</b>Posted by thesweetcheat <b>The Fairy Well</b>Posted by thesweetcheat <b>The Fairy Well</b>Posted by thesweetcheat <b>The Fairy Well</b>Posted by goffik <b>The Fairy Well</b>Posted by goffik <b>The Fairy Well</b>Posted by goffik

Fieldnotes

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4th October 2003

This place is seriously out of the way! Thanks are due to Goffik for his directions which led me straight there. This is not somewhere that someone who has a problem with heights (like me!) should go. Goffik's directions state 'take the left fork'. As the path clings limpet like to the side of a very high cliff, the only way I could see a left fork taking me was straight down. Luckily, the main path forked right and up, and the left fork consisted of just a few steps down to the well itself. There's not much more than a thin covering of foliage stopping anyone falling off the cliff though, so I wouldn't suggest visiting here in wet or windy weather.

Access: Not for the faint-hearted!
ocifant Posted by ocifant
13th October 2003ce

Mrs Goffik and I tried to find this place May 2003, but, being the buffoon I am, approached it from the wrong direction, throwing the directions that I had into disarray!

This time, we took the first signed road to the beach at Carbis Bay, from the A3074 toward St Ives, and past the church on the left, took the next right into Headland Road. At the end of the road is a footpath that goes straight ahead or left. We turned left, down the slope, and over the train track, then right along the cliff path, down a steep bit, then, when the path forks, take the left turn. Again, a quite steep bit, but a very short distance will lead you to this beautiful, clear, flowing well...

It's completely untouched by modern hand, bar the obligatory clouties in the tree above. An inspiring setting, made all the better by the beautiful sunny day.

It is a natural well, granted, with no man-made structure around. It is attributed to St Uny, who was about in the 5th century, but I bet anyone a million squillion quid* that is was used by neolithic/bronze age man on a regular basis, both for the wonderful tasting fresh water continually gushing through, and the spiritual essence that is undoubtably in residence. If you believe that sort of thing. It's nice, whatever.

*Strong evidence must be supplied.
goffik Posted by goffik
22nd September 2003ce
Edited 24th September 2003ce

Folklore

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This is a wishing-well of some note in the
district; people even now go there to drop in
crooked pins, and wish. It is only a square hole
in the ground high up on the cliffs, at the base of
an overhanging rock, situated at the end of a nut
grove; a stream runs along the side, and a little of
it flows into the well by a gutter.


From "Ancient and Holy Wells of Cornwall" - M&L Quiller-Couch (1894).
thesweetcheat Posted by thesweetcheat
7th July 2016ce