Saint
Madron Well
A pin in the water. Watch the bubbles.
See it clearly
- What's there
- Spring, rag-tied trees and roofless chapel
- Legend from
- 17th-century account
- Tone
- Curious
Drop a pin in the spring and watch the bubbles. They will tell you who you'll marry.
Madron Well is a spring on boggy moorland north-west of Madron, with the roofless ruin of a medieval chapel about 200 metres away. Robert Hunt, quoting earlier writers, says visitors bent over the water, made the sign of the cross and dropped in a pin or pebble, then read the rising bubbles to learn of a lover or a husband. A 17th-century account tells of two lame men who bathed there and, within weeks, could walk on crutches and later with a stick. The chapel was wrecked by Major Ceely in Cromwell's time. Strips of cloth, called clouties, are still tied on the path.