The Living Wells of Wales

Author and photographer Phil Cope takes the reader on a journey through the sacred wells of Wales from the Anglesey to the Gwent. He discovers wells in city centres and, quite literally, in the middle of nowhere – on mountainsides, in deserted valleys, on the coast, in sea caves. They include healing wells, cursing wells, and wells named for saints, Satan, witches, angels, fairies, friars, nuns, hermits, murderers and hangmen. His stunning, atmospheric photographs are accompanied by folk tales, myths and legends, conversations with well-keepers and poems inspired by Welsh wells.

Wales has an abundance of wells both in the natural state and domesticated for private or civic use. Published in conjunction with the Keep Wales Tidy Living Wells project, The Living Wells of Wales is a guide to historic sites important to Welsh identity which have been hidden and neglected in town and countryside, and which now have new life as a result of the project. Packed with colour photographs, including some of long-forgotten wells now rediscovered, The Living Wells of Wales is the new definitive volume on a subject gaining a new popularity.

The Living Wells of Wales is a new title in the Holy Wells series, and is preceded by volumes on Scotland, Cornwall and the Borderlands.