Qualla: St Gwenfaen's Well https://qualla.com/st-gwenfaen-s-well en-us © 2026 Bendyline Wed, 08 Jul 2026 02:40:13 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/k/w/st-gwenfaen-s-well-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: St Gwenfaen's Well https://qualla.com/st-gwenfaen-s-well St Gwenfaen's Well: Introduction https://qualla.com/st-gwenfaen-s-well/ Photo credit Jonathan Wilkins, CC BY-SA 2.0. The instruction is exact. Two pebbles, both of white quartz, dropped one at a time into the water of the well. The legend says this offering -- precise, paired, deliberately bright against the dark stone of the chamber -- secures the intercession of Saint Gwenfaen of Rhoscolyn for the trouble of the mind. The well is medieval, possibly older. It lies in a cleft of rock in a small dell on the southwest tip of Holy Island, looking out across the cliffs of Porth Gwalch -- Hawk Bay -- to the Irish Sea. The site is a scheduled monument and a Grade II listed building. Until very recently the offerings still came -- modern pilgrims walking the Anglesey Coastal Path and locals on the long way round, pausing at the chamber and bending to lay quartz in the dark water.

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Image: Jonathan Wilkins | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/k/w/st-gwenfaen-s-well-wp/gckw-st-gwenfaens-well-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full St Gwenfaen's Well: The Saint https://qualla.com/st-gwenfaen-s-well/ Photo credit Chris Andrews, CC BY-SA 2.0. Gwenfaen was a sixth-century holy woman, the daughter of Paul Hen of Manaw -- Paul the Elder, sometimes called Old Paulinus -- and the sister of Peulan and Gwyngeneu, both also venerated as saints. The siblings settled on Holy Island, off the west coast of Anglesey, where Celtic ...

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Image: Chris Andrews | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/k/w/st-gwenfaen-s-well-wp/gckw-st-gwenfaens-well-the-saint.mp3 0:06 2 full St Gwenfaen's Well: The Architecture of the Cure https://qualla.com/st-gwenfaen-s-well/ Photo credit Jonathan Wilkins, CC BY-SA 2.0. The well house is dry-stone, 4.5 metres east-to-west by an original 5.5 metres north-to-south. You descend three steps from the east into an outer chamber two metres square, the floor flagged, with four diagonal stone seats in the corners. Beyond that, a narrow opening and more s...

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Image: Jonathan Wilkins | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/k/w/st-gwenfaen-s-well-wp/gckw-st-gwenfaens-well-the-architecture-of-the-cure.mp3 0:06 3 full St Gwenfaen's Well: Druids and Angels https://qualla.com/st-gwenfaen-s-well/ Photo credit Ian Greig, CC BY-SA 2.0. The story of the chase and the tide raises a question that has no neat answer. By the sixth century, Christianity was already well established in the Brittonic-speaking parts of Britain. The druidic priesthood of the Iron Age had been suppressed centuries earlier -- famously by t...

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Image: Ian Greig | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/k/w/st-gwenfaen-s-well-wp/gckw-st-gwenfaens-well-druids-and-angels.mp3 0:06 4 full St Gwenfaen's Well: Still Blessed https://qualla.com/st-gwenfaen-s-well/ Photo credit Llywelyn2000, CC BY-SA 4.0. The well was designated a Grade II listed building in 1971 and a scheduled monument in 1987. Every year on or near Saint Gwenfaen's day, 4 November, the parishioners of St Gwenfaen's Church walk down to the well after Holy Communion and bless it. The walk takes about twenty minut...

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Image: Llywelyn2000 | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/k/w/st-gwenfaen-s-well-wp/gckw-st-gwenfaens-well-still-blessed.mp3 0:06 5 full