The Holy Well/Spring at Trevornick Golf course.
St.Cubert was a founding saint. He was a Welsh missionary who came over in the 7th C, together with his companion, St. Carantoc, and he established his church in the village of Cubert in Holywell.
The Holy Well at Trevornick is possibly where St Cubert would have baptised his first converts
This was the blue light I saw as I was leaving. I had sat inside the remains, meditated and prayed. I visited on the August 2024 blue supermoon.
When I looked at the photos it looks as though there is a face by the wall, which does look like St. Cuthbert.
The holy spring trickles down the ferns. I drank from it.
You can sit inside.
Here is the entrance. You can walk through to the back. I went August 2024 but you may need wellies as when I tried to return May 2025 it was too boggy.
Here is the map showing where The Holy well/Spring is on the Trevornick Golf Course.
Near the top it is spring water
The ‘steps’ leading up to where the spring water enters.
The entrance to the sea cave
Looking out from the small cave inside the main cave.
St. Cubert’s & St. Cuthbert’s Holy Well/Spring – Cubert, Holywell Bay – Trevornick Golf Course
There are said to be two holy wells in Cubert. One well is in a sea cave in Holywell Bay & the other one is on the golf course in Trevornick Holiday Park.
There are many descriptions of people travelling from miles around to receive the healing powers of Cubert’s wells, particularly mothers who brought sick children, hoping for a cure. For centuries, Pilgrims & the sick visited to drink the natural water from the sacred spring.
It was believed virtue resided in its water; & said that the cripples were accustomed to leaving their crutches in the hole at the head of the well.
Legend has it a Welshman called St Cubert is said to have come to Cornwall to convert local people to Christianity in the 700s & used to pray in the sea. The holy well, a spring bubbling up from the ground in Trevornick Holiday Park, was possibly the site of Cubert’s baptisms & an early gathering place before a chapel was later built. St. Cubert has a church in Cubert village.
Another legend was that St Cuthbert of Lindisfarne, in northern England, was a Medieval saint who died in 687.
In 995 AD, a bishop visited from the Holy Island – this Bishops name was Alchun. He brought the body of Saint Cuthbert (c. 634 – 20 March 687) with him, whose relics (bones) were removed in the year 995 to prevent them from being stolen from Viking raiders. An oracle instructed them to return the relics to Durham.
While the escaping monks were trying to sail to Ireland, their boat blew off course and ended up in Cornwall. When they left, it was said that Cuthbert’s holy remains touched the waters of the cave, giving them magical powers.
It was his thoughtful relationship with animals, his encounters with angels & life as a hermit that connected the saint to Cornwall & Trevornick Well was where monks & pilgrims would stay when they visited and was later a restored 14th-century chapel.
When I visited the Holy well on the golf course. I entered into the small area where the spring water entered, filled a bottle with water to take home. and sat and prayed. I drank three slurps of water directly from the small trickle from my hand and sat and meditated. As I was leaving I saw a shaft of blue light but didn’t think anything of it.
When I looked at the photographs a few days later I saw the blue light and what looked like a face by the wall.
I then Googled St. Cubert and St. Cuthbert.
I was surprised to see just how much he looked like the face by the wall and so I looked up what blue light can mean at holy places.
“Blue light, often associated with the angel Michael and the Holy Spirit, is also linked to various saints and religious traditions.
Specifically, blue is associated with Mary, the Virgin Mother, and is used in some liturgical traditions. Additionally, blue light is mentioned in the context of the Holy Fire phenomenon in Orthodox Christianity.”
St. Cubert’s Holy Sea Cave at Holywell Bay.
This is a magical place to visit and if you climb up to the top if the rock formation you can feel where the Holy Spring water enters the cave and drink from it.
The place is considered holy because of St. Cubert/Cuthbert of Lindisfarne, who in northern England, was a Medieval saint who died in 687.
The natural spring descends through the multi-coloured grotto from the back of the cave, and it is believed to have powerful healing properties. The actual Holy Spring that flows into the cave is on Trevornick Golf course which you can access.
lt’s written that in olden times mothers on Ascension Day brought their deformed or sickly children here, and dipped them in, at the same time passing them through the aperture connecting the two cisterns ; and so it is said, they became healed of their disease or deformity.
The rich deposits of minerals within it are to thank for the high calcium levels & can be credited for the vivid colours.
In 995 AD, a bishop visited from the Holy Island – this Bishops name was Alchun. He brought the body of Saint Cuthbert (c. 634 – 20 March 687) with him, whose relics (bones) were removed in the year 995 to prevent them from being stolen from Viking raiders. An oracle instructed them to return the relics to Durham.
While the escaping monks were trying to sail to Ireland, their boat blew off course and ended up in Cornwall. When they left, it was said that Cuthbert’s holy remains touched the waters of the cave, giving them magical powers.
Mabel Quiller-Couch wrote the first history of Cornwall’s holy wells in 1894. In it, she described Cubert’s sea cave holy well as being so popular in ancient times that “incredible numbers” travelled there from distant countries.
I had a drink from the water at the top & it was very ‘soft’; others have described it tasting of cereal bowl milk.
Parking: National Trust car park at the end of Holywell village (TR8 5PF; SW767586).
Sat Nav: Holywell TR8 5PF
You can go visit the Holy Spring on Trevornick Golf course where I’m pretty sure I saw St. Cubert!
At the east end of Holywell Bay and below Kelsey Head can be found the Holywell that gives the area its name. Only reachable at low tide, the well or wells are found inside a large cave that can not be seen from the main part of the beach.
Many pools have been formed by natural build up of minerals more in common with the mendip cave systems.
How and when they got the name holy well I am not sure but as with many of the other wells in Cornwall there origins are pre Christian.
I great place to escape from the excesses of Newquay or Perranporth.
At Holywell, or St. Cuthbert’s well, in Cubert [..] there is a well, or spring of fresh water, in a cavern on the sea shore. Thither on Holy Thursday children from the neighbourhood are carried, passed through a narrow fissure in the rock, and then immersed in a well, or font, excavated just beneath. This ceremony is traditionally said to be for the benefit of the child in soul and body.
Included for its stoney connection, from p241 of ‘The cross and the serpent’ by William Haslem (1849), which is readable on Google Books:
