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The four sided pool on this impressive site is  filled by a number of springs that emerge from the hillside of this beautiful tree lined valley on the south side of the church. Whilst on private land it is accessible via a footpath from the churchyard.

St. Dyfnog  was venerated throughout North East Wales and it seems that he spent his days standing in the water as penance.

Many pilgrims visited the well during the Middle Ages.  It seems that its proximity to St. Winefride’s well in Holywell may well have encouraged pilgrims to include it as part of their pilgrimage.

During Victorian times records  reveal that it was enclosed by an ornate building, which included a changing area.

When Thomas Pennant visited the site in the latter part of the eighteenth century he records that ‘……this fountain is enclosed in an angular basin, decorated by small human figures and before it is the well for the use of pious bathers.’

Shakespeare described churches as ‘sermons in stone’ and it was the donations from pilgrims who had been cured of their ailments which contributed to the cost of building the church and probably the creation of  its major feature, the Jesse Window.  This depicts the family tree of Jesus and is one of the most important windows of its kind.

There was a revival of interest in visitations to holy sites in the eighteenth century.  It seems likely that the landscaping of the woodland path which leads to the well took place then.  Note the three beautiful stone bridges over the stream.  This led one writer to describe it as ‘heaven on earth’.

More than a thousand wells were listed in Wales in 1951, far fewer exist to-day, but even so we can be thankful that St. Dyfnog’s Well is among those which remain.

Dewi Roberts

St Dyfnog’s Holy Well - Ffynon Dyfnog