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Image of Pen-Y-Gaer and Nant Castell (Hillfort) by juamei

Image Credit: Natural Resources Wales

Image credit: LiDAR Composite Dataset. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v2.0.

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Folklore

Pen-Y-Gaer and Nant Castell
Hillfort

There are two forts here above Llanbedrog, separated by a small valley. Pen-y-Gaer is apparently the more obvious today, according to Coflein. There are lots of springs around this high land, and a path / road lead toward one with particular renown – Ffynnon Bedrog (SH32263226). Coflein calls it a wishing well, but the Reverend Baring Gould knows better.

In Wales [St Petroc] is more especially associated by tradition with Llanbedrog. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries it was there considered to be “beneficial to offer to Pedrog for gangrenes.” His Holy Well, Ffynnon Bedrog, is on Bryn Du, in the parish. It enjoyed a great reputation formerly, and many traditions linger of the miraculous cures effected by its waters in every conceivable ailment. Some years ago a round vessel of dark stone was found at its bottom full of pins. Thieves could be discovered by it. A bit of bread thrown on its surface by the injured person sank at the mention of the thief’s name among a number of suspected persons.

From p102 of ‘Lives of the British Saints, Vol. 1’ by S Baring-Gould and John Fisher (1907).
archive.org/stream/cu31924092447816#page/n125

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