A Modern Votive Deposit at a North Welsh Holy Well

Bibliographic Data

ID8934496
AuthorsTristan Gray Hulse (corresponding author)
Year1995
Volume106
Issue1-2
Pages31-42
Publication date1995-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueFolklore (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0015-587X • E-ISSN: 1469-8315
PublisherRoutledge (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/0015587x.1995.9715890
OpenAlexW2071691676
LanguageEN
Citations received5

wards Llandudno, is found a tiny chapel. Before the development of the town in the late nineteenth century, and the building of the road, the chapel was actually at the foot of a grassy slope, just at the point where grass gave way to pebbly beach-an environment now hard to imagine, isolated as the chapel is by acres of concrete and the piled boulders of the newly-augmented coastal defences (see Fig. 1). The chapel protects a holy well, and is thus known as Capel Ffynnon Drillo chapel of St Trillo's Well) or, more simply, as Capel Trillo. St Trillo is one of the most shadowy of the saints of Wales. He was the grandson of the Breton dynast Emyr Llydaw (Bartrum 1974, 26), and is thought to have accompanied the mission to Wales led by his cousin St Cadfan. This sizeable group is said to have included his brothers Tegai, Fflewin and Gredifael, and their sister Llechid, all of whom were venerated as saints, and all of whom are the patrons of churches in Gwynedd. They flourished in the first half of the sixth century. Trillo is also the patron of Llandrillo, near Bala, in Merioneth, where another holy well bears his name (Baring-Gould and Fisher 1913, 2634).1 Here, in the late seventeenth century, a tumulus bearing the name bedd y santes (the [female] saint's grave) was shown as the grave of St Trillo's wife (Morris 1910, 58). This is almost the only fragment of any genuinely old tradition concerning St Trillo to have survived. He was venerated liturgically as an abbot, with a feast on 15 June. All that can be said with certainty about the saint's connection with Llandrillo-yn-Rhos is that he is the patron of the church there, which eventually gave its name to the whole parish. The presence of the sacred well bearing his name strengthens the supposition that he was the original founder of the church. The Royal Commission Inspectors visited Capel Trillo on 6 July 1912. They described it as

Ancient history · Archaeology · Art · Welsh · Historical Studies of British Isles · History · Scottish History and National Identity

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