Holywell Travel Video Guide

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A place of pilgrimage for thirteen hundred years, HOLYWELL (Treffynnon), just off the A55 ten miles east of St Asaph, comes billed as "The Lourdes of Wales" - but without the tacky souvenir stalls, it doesn't really warrant such a comparison. St Winefride's Well (daily: mid-May to Sept 9.30am-5.15pm; rest of year 10am-4pm; donation requested) - half a mile from the bus station at the far end of the High Street, then turn right and follow the signs - is the source of all the fuss, a calm pool capacious enough to accommodate the dozens of the faithful who dutifully wade through the waters three times in the hope of curing their ailments, a relic of the Celtic baptism by triple immersion.

The existence of the spring was first noted by the Romans, who used the waters to relieve rheumatism and gout. The traditional legend, however, states that in around 660, the virtuous Winefride (Gwenfrewi in Welsh) was decapitated here after resisting the amorous advances of Prince Caradoc; the well is said to have sprung up at the spot where her head fell. Richard I and Henry V provided regal patronage, ensuring a steady flow of believers to what became one of the great shrines of Christendom, and James II came here to pray for a son and heir. Pilgrims formerly spent the night praying in the Perpendicular St Winefride's Chapel (key from the ticket office; CADW), built in around 1500 to enclose three sides of the well. The site's importance is waning, but pilgrimages do still take place, mainly on St Winefride's Day, the nearest Sunday to June 22, when a couple of thousand pilgrims are led through the streets behind a relic, part of Winefride's thumb-bone.

From St Winefride's Well, a mile-long path runs past the remains of the copper and brass factories which now constitute the Greenfield Valley Heritage Park (April-Oct daily 10am-5pm; GBP2), whose moderately

interesting farm and museum preserves agricultural and other buildings from around the area. Over the way are the ruined domestic buildings used by the abbot and twelve monks of the Savignac order at Basingwerk Abbey (free access; CADW), and there's a good exhibition about it in the Greenfield Valley visitor centre (April-Oct daily 10am-5pm; free).

Holywell has no train station, but frequent buses run to Rhyl and Chester from the bus station at the southern end of High Street.

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