Trelill Holy Well – Cornwall’s first scheduled monument

Trelill Well sits in a quiet wooded valley that, at this time of year, is swathed in billows of cow parsley, campions and fox gloves. This pretty well which was the first monument in Cornwall to be scheduled in 1922 (CO 1), was almost forgotten until quite recently. Dedicated to St Wendrona in 1423 it […]

Read More

Figgy Dowdy’s Well – Carn Marth

Figgy Dowdy had a well On top of Carn Marth hill She locked it up night and day Lest people carry the water away! Carn Marth is the highest of a range of hills that stretch from Gwennap to Camborne. Rising 757ft (230m) above the village of Lanner, it is riddled with quarries and old […]

Read More

Quenchwell Spring & a Pocket full of Nonsense.

There are literally hundreds of Holy Wells in Cornwall, most associated with a saint and usually famous for providing some kind of miraculous cure for some ailment – from rickets to infertility to lameness and eye complaints, there’s a well out there that will help you. We forget of course that the vast majority of […]

Read More

Saint Keyne – Equal Rights for 5th Century Women

saint keyne

We often think of saints as somehow ethereal beings who did miraculous, unbelievable things in far-away lands and in times so distant from our own.  And let’s face it some of them very much live up to that reputation.  But we shouldn’t forget that they were actually real people. The Real Saint Keyne Saint Keyne […]

Read More