Chris Morriss
Possible location for St Mary's Well?
The Well at the World's End.
William Morris, the 19th century polymath: Graphic artist, poet, successful businessman and political agitator, though best known these days for his dysfunctional marriage to Jane Burden, also, near the end of his life, pretty much founded the genre of fantasy novels set in a pseudo-medieval landscape.
'The Well at the World's End' is the longest and best known of these, though probably little read these days.
The well in question is in a location strikingly similar to the site of St Mary's Well, situated down a perilous cliff, right at the tip of the Llyn Peninsula in North Wales.
I went on my own quest for it on the afternoon of my last day of camping not too far away.
Like the version in the novel, this one is hard to find, with the 1:25,000 OS map not being of any help, as it does not show an exact location for it.
My walk down the stream valley from the grassy car parking space led me down to almost sea level, with excellent views of Bardsey Island, the ultimate destination for thousands of pilgrims, and to a dramatic rocky inlet, but no freshwater well.
A bit of research when I got back home shows that it is actually further around the rocks on the right, possibly where the green patches are, half way up the RH side of this photo, just above sea level.
It looks as if any visit needs to be done at low tide.
Any advice on whether one has to traverse around these rocks, or is there a route down for the cliff top? It appears that the well is at OS grid reference SH 1392,2518
Possible location for St Mary's Well?
The Well at the World's End.
William Morris, the 19th century polymath: Graphic artist, poet, successful businessman and political agitator, though best known these days for his dysfunctional marriage to Jane Burden, also, near the end of his life, pretty much founded the genre of fantasy novels set in a pseudo-medieval landscape.
'The Well at the World's End' is the longest and best known of these, though probably little read these days.
The well in question is in a location strikingly similar to the site of St Mary's Well, situated down a perilous cliff, right at the tip of the Llyn Peninsula in North Wales.
I went on my own quest for it on the afternoon of my last day of camping not too far away.
Like the version in the novel, this one is hard to find, with the 1:25,000 OS map not being of any help, as it does not show an exact location for it.
My walk down the stream valley from the grassy car parking space led me down to almost sea level, with excellent views of Bardsey Island, the ultimate destination for thousands of pilgrims, and to a dramatic rocky inlet, but no freshwater well.
A bit of research when I got back home shows that it is actually further around the rocks on the right, possibly where the green patches are, half way up the RH side of this photo, just above sea level.
It looks as if any visit needs to be done at low tide.
Any advice on whether one has to traverse around these rocks, or is there a route down for the cliff top? It appears that the well is at OS grid reference SH 1392,2518