St Cuthbert's Well

Holywell Bay

I had read about this well and decided to visit on the first leg of my return journey. The man at the car park took a sharp intake of breath when I asked about the well and said 'you'll be lucky, it's a 1.9 tide'. I thought I had planned well by arriving at dead low tide, I said. Another sharp intake of breath and, 'sometimes you can't get there even at low tide .... you wouldn't want to get stuck in there'.  How about if I go quick, I said. More shaking of the head and a shrug ... 'you could try but you won't have long'. As I legged it down to the beach I passed the lifeguards and thought I'd double check and pinpoint where I was heading to save time. They had a more relaxed Baywatch style and said, 'yeah, sure, you've got a couple of hours yet' although did warn of recent rock falls making it difficult to get to. I got to the other end of the wonderful sweep of Holywell Bay and unsure of the cave entrance found the one I thought must be it. There would be no knowing from the outside what lay within. Even as I clambered in there was just some old fishing rope amongst the rocks and I thought I must have the wrong cave until I happened to look up to my left. And this is what I saw. What an astonishingly magical sight. I climbed up and tasted the water it was fresh and pure and had built up these wonderful calcified sculptured pools and streaked with the colours of various minerals.

The water has been apparently purified by the remains of St Cuthbert as he was carried this way and it was particularly used for healing babies. Folk would come from far and wide to seek out its healing.

It was a strange foggy morning and there were very few people around. I asked the lifeguard if there was a reason why no-one was swimming and he said it was just the fog after such a blisteringly hot day yesterday.
So, I had a lovely dip before starting my homeward journey.