The North Wales Pilgrim’s Way

The North Wales Pilgrim’s Way is a 240km path linking St Winefride’s Well at Holywell to Bardsey Island and makes full use of existing footpaths and some of the Wales Costal Path.

Following in the footsteps of centuries of pilgrimages to Bardsey, the path is an opportunity for modern day pilgrims to follow the path whilst visiting many interesting historical sites along the way and to marvel at the area’s natural environment.

The North Wales Pilgrim’s Way is a part of the Our Heritage project, a part of Cadw’s Heritage Tourism Project partially funded by the European Regional Development Fund through the Welsh Government.


The North Wales Pilgrim’s Way attracts many visitors to this amazing area, as does the Camino de Santiago in Spain, as the North Wales Pilgrim’s Way is a great opportunity to see some of North Wales’ most beautiful countryside and historical sites.

It’s wonderful to see how the interest has been re-ignited in the centuries old tradition of pilgrimage from Holywell to Bardsey, and we set off from Holywell in high spirits.
My leg seems completely healed and the Greenfield Valley trail, like the day, stretches ahead.

 [pilgrims-way-north-wales.org]


     Holywell town
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St Winefride’s Well, Holywell - is the only shrine in Britain to have survived the Reformation; and has, since late Victorian times provided the town with the epithet of “The Lourdes of Wales”.

Nowadays it is very much an “exit through the gift shop” tourist attraction, strongly promoted on the tourist trail, it is the only well to charge an entrance fee, albeit a modest one pound, and to be a fully fledged “visitor attraction”.

However, it remains at the same time a place of pilgrimage, holds regular services and many visitors travel long distances to bathe in the well or to take away well water. By tradition the visitor should enter the water three times for the cure to be effective although even this process does not necessarily guarantee success; cures have also been obtained through prayer or drinking the well water.
Today the well receives around 40000 visitors a year and recently numbers have been said to be increasing significantly.

St Winefride’s Well has one of the most detailed recorded histories amongst the local wells.
Throughout its history it has been visited by royalty, and the well and its surrounded beliefs managed to survive the reformation.
The story of St Winefride has become embellished with miracles in its telling. Name "Winefride" is an anglicised version of the Latin - 'Wenefreda'.
The original Welsh version of name is - Gwenfrewy;

Winefride was the daughter of a noble land owning family in the region in the 7th century and intended to be a nun, her aunt Tenhoi was abbess of Gwytherin, near Llanwrst.
However, a local prince, Caradog, met her. Whilst some stories suggest he wished to marry her, most suggest that he was already married his intentions were less honourable.
Either way she refused him and he first tried to rape her, and then took out his sword and sliced her head off. Later embellishments to the story record that  her head went rolling down the hillside and out from the earth where her head had landed burst forth a stream of water forming what is now St Winefride’s Well.

Fortunately her uncle was close at hand, celebrating mass in his church and  was able to reattach the head and restore Winefride to life. Caradog was taken by the devil and Winefride was able to return to her destined religious life, first founding a convent near Holywell before joining her aunt at Gwytherin and eventually becoming abbess herself.
Pictures and statues of her, in accordance with the legend traditionally bear the white scar around her neck showing where her head had been reattached. She died and was interred at Gwytherin, however, following reports of cures at the well  her remains were transferred to Shrewsbury in 1138. Although most of her relics were lost and destroyed during the Reformation a bone, too small to be identified, although accounts describe it as part of a finger bone, survives and is now at Holywell.

The history of this well has been recorded for 1000 years. The church at 'Haliwel' was given to St Werbergh’s Abbey in Chester  in 1093 indicating that the place name of Holy Well was already established by that date. References to the well as a place of pilgrimage and specifically of healing date certainly from the twelfth century.

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our pilgrim passports