The Modern Antiquarian. Stone Circles, Ancient Sites, Neolithic Monuments, Ancient Monuments, Prehistoric Sites, Megalithic MysteriesThe Modern Antiquarian

Cerrig-y-Ddinas

Hillfort

Folklore

It may be a bit cheeky to add the folklore for your well? But it's not far away and you'd imagine the inhabitants of the fort probably popped here for water? Once they'd used the amount up in that bullaun-style dip. I seem to remember the well featured in the BBC series 'Pagans and Pilgrims.'
In the south-east corner of the churchyard is St. Celynin's well, at one time of more than local fame. [...] The well was resorted to by mothers with weak and sickly children, as a last resource, to strengthen their limbs, and restore them to health. The children were immersed either early in the morning, or in the evening, and were afterwards wrapped in a blanket and allowed to sleep. There was always a spare bed for the sufferers, and a hearty welcome to the anxious mothers, at a farm a little to the south, called Cae Ial. The cures effected by the virtue of the waters are said to have been many. The efficacy of the well is not altogether disbelieved by the neighbouring inhabitants at the present time. With the water of this well, children were always baptized.

On the left hand side of the road that passes the churchyard, and about two hundred yards from it, is a small spring called Ffynnon Gwynwy. Any one troubled with warts, upon making an offering of a crooked pin to the well, lost them. Fifty years ago the bottom of this little well was covered with pins; everybody was careful not to touch them, fearing that the warts deposited with the pins would grow upon their own hands if they did so. But the belief in the efficacy of the water has departed, and the well presents the appearance of a hole filled with clear water, overgrown with weeds.
'Llangelynin Old Church, Caernarvonshire' by E Owen, in Archaeologia Cambrensis v13, January 1867.
Rhiannon Posted by Rhiannon
30th November 2014ce

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