The cave is at the very east end of the beach, if looking from the life savers hut it is below the large scar in the cliff so actually hidden by the cliff jutting out in front of it. I think the tide has to be nearly all out before you can get there.

Glad that you appreciate the photos...I wasn't sure if they were suitable for the TMA at first but we seem to be getting all sorts of things on here now that I thought ..why not.

Give us a call if and when you get down here in November.

Mr H

<i>> "Shouldn't holy wells have their own website dedicated to them? It would be a vast resource."</i>

I'd love to! But I just can't find the time… Keep meaning to get the one I started ages ago redesigned and up and running… watch this space!

> "How many thousands of springs are there in Britain? Should they all be on this site because some think that they all 'may' have been of more significance than merely water sources to prehistoric people?"

Hmm... I've wondered this enough times myself, I really have. Maybe I have a blinkered view, cos I WANT them all to be special!

We all seem quite happy to believe that prehistoric people worshipped the sun/moon/wind/thunder/[insert natural phenomena here] as it affected their lives in one way or another, so I don't think it's too much of a leap to add "fresh water coming from the ground" to that list! It's pretty blummen important as far as not dying goes, and it has all manner of other practical uses (doing the prehistoric dishes, etc)...

I just feel that, although some of these wells have been heinously disfigured by our christian cousins, is it possible that the spring was there and in use anyway, and they just did what they always did and stole the idea off the pagans? Don't/didn't the early religions worship natural elements? I'm running blind here, cos as much as I'm interested in the subject, I'm pretty ignorant! I just feel that pure water coming from a hole in the ground would fall into the category quite well (haha) though...

A lot of wells are in churchyards, or near churches, and it makes me think they had been used prior to the church being there. I theorise that the well is the reason for the church being built. I don't know how realistic that is, but my theory is that the area has been sacred for several thousand years, because of the source of the clean, healthy, healing water, and when the christians came along, they used the well in much the same way! Is the origin of the baptism pre-christian? Cos without anything to back it up to hand, I'm sure it is! Would that be related in any way to fresh water?

<a href="http://www.themodernantiquarian.com/site/3419">St Cuthbert's well (or Cubert Well)</a> is a good example, in my opinion. Although on a golf course rather than a church yard ;o) – this one is all very modern, restored in the 1920's from memory, but have a look at the well head itself - http://www.themodernantiquarian.com/post/11782 - not a brilliant pic, mind, but the spring or well-head seems to me to be completely different to well house. Looks like the rock that the water pours over has been there far longer than the building. Which I suppose it has. But how much longer? I suppose we can only theorise. Like we do with everything here. We don't know for sure, so we theorise. And what's wrong with that?

I'm always worried my holy/sacred wells will be taken off this site. I have absolutely no doubt that some of them are out of place due to the christianization, but as mentioned above – how old is the spring? And why, as Baza asked, "holy"? I doubt the christians would have thought of it on their own to be honest!

Now. What did I say ages ago about drinking and posting? Sorry for going on! ;o)

G x