The Fairy Well

Nearest town:
St Ives (2km WNW)
OS reference:
SW536386
OS sheet:
203
Latitude:
50° 11' 43.47 N
Longitude:
5° 27' 10.24 W
Added to TMA by

Images

Image of The Fairy Well (Sacred Well) by thesweetcheat

The outflow from the wellspring, which runs over the cliff edge and down to Porth Kidney Sands below.

Image credit: A. Brookes (22.6.2016)
thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Jul 7, 2016
Image of The Fairy Well (Sacred Well) by thesweetcheat

Numerous clouties (many sadly not biodegradable) above the well.

Image credit: A. Brookes (22.6.2016)
thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Jul 7, 2016
Image of The Fairy Well (Sacred Well) by goffik

Don’t come here on a rainy day – I bet it’s right slippy!

Image credit: Graham Orriss
goffik
goffik Sep 22, 2003
Image of The Fairy Well (Sacred Well) by goffik

View from the Fairy Well across to Godrevy Point

Image credit: Graham Orriss
goffik
goffik Sep 22, 2003

Articles

The Fairy Well

ocifant
ocifant Oct 12, 2003

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!

The Fairy Well

goffik
goffik Sep 22, 2003

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.

Folklore

The Fairy Well
Sacred Well
thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Jul 7, 2016

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).

Sites within 20km of The Fairy Well

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