Ffynnon Drillo, Llandrillo yn Rhos

Dedication: Saint Trillo

Location: Llandrillo yn Rhos

Coordinates: 53.31438N, -3.74063W

Grid reference: SH841811

Heritage designation: Grade II listed building

St Trillo, a 6th century missionary, was one of a group of saints who travelled from Brittany to Wales with St Cadfan. He was born into royalty, being the reputed son of King Ithel Hael of Brittany, and thus the brother of multiple saints such as St Gredifael and St Tecwyn. Trillo founded several churches in North Wales, notably the parish churches of Llandrillo yn Rhos (not to be confused with the well-chapel) and Llandrillo yn Edeirnion, which also possesses another of his holy wells. Trillo's cult was certainly dominant in these two areas, and tradition has it that St Trillo's medieval cell occupied the rough site of the well-chapel at Llandrillo yn Rhos, although whether there is any truth in this legend is uncertain.

Out of all of Trillo's three holy wells, this is certainly the best known. The well's dedication to St Trillo most probably dates from the 6th century, or at the latest the 7th century, by which time Trillo's cult had presumably taken hold. The date of the well-chapel, however, is uncertain. As far as I am aware, there are no early records that mention the site (the earliest reference to its existence that I have found appears in Thomas Pennant's Tour of Wales, published in 1778), and, for this reason, suggested dates for the construction of the well-chapel span from the 6th century to the 16th. Indeed, many modern sources confidently assert that the chapel is of a 6th century date, despite the lack of evidence to prove this.

On the contrary, the chapel undoubtedly is no older than the foundation charter of Aberconwy Abbey, which dates from approximately 1186. A large sum of money would have been required to build such a substantial well-chapel, and the monks of Aberconwy certainly would have had no trouble in affording this: the institution owned more land that any other abbey in Wales, and was the most powerful foundation in North Wales by the 13th century. In fact, Aberconwy Abbey was also in possession of Llandrillo's famous medieval fishing weir, located in view of Ffynnon Drillo, on the shore. During fishing season, the monks received every tenth fish caught in the weir, and it is said that they prayed daily at the holy well for a successful catch. It is only logical that the monks had this well-chapel constructed as an act of devotion to St Trillo, in an attempt to increase their chances of success. Whether a holy well existed on this spot before they built this chapel is impossible to prove, but it is unlikely that they would have constructed a chapel over a spring unless the water source was already believed to be holy.

What enabled this well-chapel to survive the Reformation, whilst countless others were destroyed, is not evident.

As previously mentioned, the earliest reference to the well-chapel (that I have been able to find) dates from 1778, and appears in Thomas Pennant's account of a tour of Wales that he embarked on in the late 18th century. He only briefly described what he called "the ſingular little building called St. Trillo's Chapel", and clearly did not see the well itself as being of any interest, describing it only as "a well" within the chapel. Pennant noted that the chapel itself was "oblong", possessed a "window on each ſide, and at the end", as well as a "ſmall door", and had "a vaulted roof, paved with round ſtones", instead of with slate. John Evans, who toured the area in 1798 (and who published a description of the journey in 1800, as A Tour Through Part of North Wales), gave the well itself more notice, and claimed that the spring had been "formerly much esteemed for the sanative virtues of its waters".

The site was rather famous during the early 19th century, and was mentioned in George Nicholson's Cambrian Traveller's Guide (1808). However, the well and chapel were beginning to show signs of neglect, and Mark Luke Louis, writing in Gleanings of a Tour in North Wales (1824) claimed, regarding Ffynnon Drillo, that the "wonders of it have ceased", and described it as being "choked up". By 1855, this condition had deteriorated further, and an illustration published in Archaeologia Cambrensis, accompanied by a short description of the well-chapel by the parish vicar, H. L. Jones (who strongly believed that the chapel was built in the early 16th century), shows that the roof had partially collapsed:

Despite its poor condition, H. L. Jones reported that the well's water was still held "in great repute" locally, and that fishermen were still in the habit of filling "their kegs at it whenever they put to sea". Indeed, John M. Bamford, writing in My Cross and Thine in 1891, claimed that the site was still visited by "gipsies", and that he had seen their "tent cloths stretched across the doorway" of the chapel. Nonetheless, the description that H. L. Jones gave of the chapel indicates that the site had been neglected for some time, and was in dire need of repair:

The building is not more than eight feet high to the crown of the vault internally, and it is vaulted over in rough stones; most of them, like those of the walls, being nothing but boulders from the shore, wedged and mortared in so as to form the segment of a circle inside, though on the outside they rise into a low ridge, now much damaged and overgrown with weeds. It is lighted by three small square-headed loops, without any ashlar stone work or ornament of any kind. The doorway is broken through, but it appears to have been arched over - whether in a pointed or in a circular form, it is impossible to conjecture. The eastern loop has been repaired in the head with wood and brick internally; and by its side, as well as in the southern wall, are two small square holes, probably intended to contain articles of devotion, or of use, for the frequenters of the holy well.

However, the well-chapel had still not been repaired by the time that Elias Owen visited it, in the December of 1892, with the Rev. J. Griffiths, Curate of Llandrillo. In a letter published in Archaeologia Cambrensis in 1893, he described the sorry state of the chapel:

It stands, or rather as much as remains of it, close to the shore, opposite the weir, in the parish of Llandrillo yn Rhos. I was sorry to find that the vaulted roof had fallen in, that the well inside the chapel was covered over with the débris from the roof, and that the whole structure and its surroundings presented a ruinated and uncared for aspect.

Although Owen suggested that, during restoration, the "walls should not be tampered with", and the "stone roof be rebuilt" exactly as it was, when the site was restored at some point between the years of 1892 and 1897, it was done rather heavy-handedly. The southern wall of the chapel, which originally contained a small window, seems to have been either partially or completely rebuilt (the small "square holes" mentioned by H. L. Jones still exist, so partial reconstruction is most likely), and the window removed; the roof was rebuilt at a different pitch, and in a different style; two buttresses were added to the north wall, and the window either tampered with or rebuilt (the lintel is now of brick); and the top of the doorway was reconstructed. In fact, as the stones that make up the walls of the chapel today do not bear any resemblance to those shown in H. L. Jones' illustration, it is possible, and probably very likely, that the entire chapel was rebuilt from scratch. Regardless, the actual stone surround of the spring, containing very worn-looking stone steps, is very obviously original and of a medieval date, and the bottom half of the north-eastern corner of the chapel seems to retain some original stone blocks. An account of an expedition to the well on the 25th of August, 1897, which was published in the Journal of the British Archaeological Society in 1898, mentioned the "unfortunate" fact that the chapel had been "covered with a modern roof".

Luckily, the exact dimensions of the original chapel are preserved in a piece entitled On Several Antiquities in North Wales, written by C. C. Babington, and published in Archaeologia Cambrensis in 1880:

The door is 1 ft. 6 ins. wide, and was apparently arched at a height of about 4 ft.; but the top has fallen away, and this height and the arch slightly doubtful. The east window is 2 ft. 6 ins. high, and 2 ft. wide internally, but only 6 ins. externally. The other windows are, one near the west end of the north wall, and another at about the middle of the south wall. They are 2 ft. 6 ins. high, 2 ft. 6 ins. wide within, and 6 ins. externally. There are two small holes like lockers at the south-east angle, - one in the south wall, and the other in the east wall.

When the Royal Commission visited the well-chapel on the 6th of July, 1912, they were of the opinion that it was "of no great antiquity". Perhaps this was caused, however, by the fact that the site had been so recently reconstructed, and likely had a rather new appearance. A very poor quality photograph from 1913, published in Sabine Baring-Gould and John Fisher's Lives of the British Saints, and taken by "Wm. Marriott Dodsen", shows how the chapel looked shortly after the Royal Commission visited the site:

The Coflein database (which is not a reliable source of information, so may be incorrect) claims that the well-chapel was restored again and reconsecrated in 1935; if this is the case, then the restoration was very minor.

Today, Ffynnon Drillo is one of the best known holy wells in Wales. However, the chapel itself seems to be getting all of the limelight, and claims to be the smallest church in Britain, although the designation of it as a "church" is perhaps not quite accurate. The fact that Ffynnon Drillo was, in medieval times, the centre of attention, appears to have been forgotten. Nonetheless, the well is kept in good condition, along with the rest of the chapel, and, when I visited the site in the May of 2025, there was clear evidence of its continued use. In fact, it was quite refreshing to see other people actually visiting the well, which is quite a rare occurrence when it comes to Britain's holy wells.

It is worth noting that modern claims that the well is dedicated to both St Trillo and St Elian seem unfounded, and I have not found any historical evidence to support them.

A view of the exterior of the well-chapel	The small portion of original medieval stone blocks on the north-eastern corner of the chapel
A close-up image of Ffynnon Drillo itself; the steps and stone surround are undoubtedly medieval	The two niches that seem to have survived the Victorian restoration, and that were marked on H. L. Jones' plan of the well-chapel
A board of recent prayer requests, situated on the altar, showing the continued use of the chapel, although perhaps no longer for its intended purpose

Access:

The well-chapel is located beside a public path; it is not always unlocked, however.