Ffynnon Degla / St Tecla’s Well, Llandegla

Cruel healing rituals involving a cockerel and a pin once drew pilgrims to this holy well, now visited in more gentle fashion by those walking the St Winefride Pilgrim Trail

Highlights

• Celtic holy well by river

Information about 1,000-year-old holy places can date surprisingly quickly. From a forgotten and inaccessible puddle, this ancient holy well has been transformed into a carefully kept visitor attraction. The thought and effort that have gone into its restoration are exemplary.

St Tecla was perhaps a local princess in the 5th century. She later traveled south and became a hermit on an island in the Severn Estuary, where she was eventually murdered by raiders from the sea. The name might alternatively refer to the obscure early church martyr St Thecla, subject of the apocryphal Acts of Paul and Thecla.

If St Tecla were an early Welsh missionary, she might have converted this well from pagan use. If so, she wasn’t entirely successful. Several historical sources record an elaborate healing ritual that seemingly owes a lot to pre-Christian tradition. On the other hand, this ritual might just reflect folk superstition with a Christian veneer tacked on.

This unusual tradition has no relevance today, since it involves a pitiless act of animal cruelty. But it allegedly proved effective for a local epilepsy sufferer as recently as 1813. For the record, you bathed in the well after sunset, walked around it three times carrying a cockerel (or hen, for a woman), and recited the Lord’s Prayer. You repeated the walk and prayers outside the church before entering the building to sleep under the altar, cockerel in hand and a Bible for a pillow. The cockerel was then pricked with pins that were thrown into the well. If the cockerel died from its injuries, the epileptic was cured. Sympathetic magic is the usual term for such healing rituals, although the word sympathy seems entirely misplaced.

The well was described as unrecognizable in 2003 but has since been thoroughly restored and holds ankle-deep clean water. A split tree trunk grows next to one end, part of the small wood that shelters this hallowed ground. There was even a beautifully painted interpretation panel alongside. Another display about the well can be seen inside the village church of St Tecla, although it was locked on my visit in the early evening.

Directions

Church at northern end of Allt yr Efail, Llandegla LL11 3AS

W3W: recorders.behave.caramel

GPS: 53.0616N 3.2031W

From St Tecla’s Church at the end of the High Street in Llandegla, there are footpath signs leading you all the way to the well, a 5–10 minute walk at most. In case one of the signs goes missing, you simply continue down the main road out of the village. Immediately after crossing the short stone bridge, turn left along a riverbank path. There is a wooden footbridge to the well on the left after 100 meters or so.