The Braaid

The visiting of wells for the cure of diseases was very general in the Isle of Man within living memory. The special days on which they were visited were Ascension Day and the first Sunday in August, especially the latter day, but the sick, or their friends, came also on other days for the water, particularly on Sundays "when the books were open," i.e. during the time of Morning Service in the Parish Church. [...] Though the custome is even nowadays probably not quite extinct, yet in the greatly changed state of the Island the presence of a coin or a few pins in one of these wells would more probably be due to a feeling for an old custom than to any real belief in the efficacy of the well* - as likely as not it would be due to some holiday visitor who had come picnicking to the spot.