Ffynnon Llawddog, Bridell

Dedication: Saint Llawddog

Location: Ffynnon Llawddog

Coordinates: 52.01944N, -4.65195W

Grid reference: SN181389

Heritage designation: none

St Llawddog ab Dingad was a 6th century saint who appears to have spent the majority of his time in the area around Cilgerran, probably as a hermit. According to Rice Rees in his Essay on the Welsh Saints (1835), he had several saintly brothers, including Gwytherin, Tygwy, and Tyfriog, and retired to Bardsey Island in later life. He is not to be confused with St Cadfan's companion, St Lleuddad, who reputedly lived half a century earlier. Llawddog's cult was certainly present in Cilgerran, and the parish church, which was almost certainly founded by him, bears his dedication. Interestingly, it is very probable that Ffynnon Llawddog would have been visited by pilgrims on their way to the famous Ffynnon Feugan, located less than a mile to the south.

Nothing is recorded of the early history of Ffynnon Llawddog. The house located next to it has been called "Ffynnon Llawddog" since at least the 1840s, when it was named as such on a tithe map of the parish, but the name of the well is clearly much older. Nonetheless, the earliest description of the well that I have been able to find dates from 1867, by which time any traditions that were once associated with the site had been forgotten. This reference appears in The History of Cilgerran, written by John Roland Phillips:

The other [place in the parish bearing Llawddog's name] is a farm called Ffynnon-Llawddog, in the adjoining parish of Bridell, and on the confines of this, which derives its name from a well on the land, which, for some reason or other, in very remote times was considered to be under the invocation of our saint. But I am not aware that any healing or miraculous powers have been attributed to its waters. At any rate, no tradition to that effect has been handed down to the present age.

By the early 20th century, it appears that the exact location of Ffynnon Llawddog had been almost completely forgotten, and the Royal Commission, instead of visiting the site themselves, only quoted John Roland Phillips. Even Francis Jones, in The Holy Wells of Wales (1954), simply wrote that it is located "in Bridell parish", and does not appear to have known the location himself. Perhaps it is because of this, coupled with the fact that the well has never been marked on Ordnance Survey maps, that both the Dyfed Archaeological Trust's record and the Coflein database give only a very approximate grid reference for the site.

Ffynnon Llawddog, however, is not lost. When I visited the site in the April of 2025, a very helpful local farmer showed me the location of Ffynnon Llawddog, and explained that the large metal building that now sits over the well houses a pump, which transports the water to the nearby house. He remembered that the spring was once surrounded by a stone structure of some kind (the only remnant of this being the large stones scattered across the stream), and mentioned an old local legend that Llawddog himself used to collect water from the spring. Despite the fact that it has now been capped, Ffynnon Llawddog was producing a copious amount of water.

Inside the metal pumping station	The stream that issues from the now capped spring
The well as seen from a distance

Access:

The well is located just off and can be seen from a public footpath that runs through the garden of a private house.