Pwll-y-Wrach, the Witches Pool.
There
is a pool hidden from the road among a copse on the top of Flint Mountain,
in Flint North Wales. The pool is so small that travellers from Flint
to Northop would not give it a second glance. But this was not always
so. In days gone by Flint Mountain was a bare and desolate place and
the pool was known as Pwll-y-Wrach, the Hag's Pool or the Witches Pool,
the place where the ellyllon (as the Welsh call fairies or goblins)
would congregate, and thus a place where humans would stay well clear
of, especially after dark.
But in 1852 John Roberts a farm labourer paid an unexpected visit to
Pwll-y-Wrach. It was a cold winter's morning and John was setting
out to work when he found a youth blocking his path. With a harmless
gesture he made to pass the youth but all of a sudden a force propelled
him through the air. He landed face down above Pwll-y-Wrach, and the
force held him there despite John's best efforts to free himself. He
struggled for what seemed a lifetime, but in fact was just a few short
minutes, until at the sound of a cock crow he was released.
The ellyll, still disguised as a youth, stood astride him and warned.
" When the cuckoo sings it's first note on Flint Mountain I shall come
again to fetch you".
John got to his feet and stumbled back home, shaken but otherwise unhurt.
The following May John Roberts died. He had been repairing a wall at
Pen-y-glyn on Flint Mountain when it collapsed and crushed him. A lady
who witnessed the accident said a cuckoo had come to land on a nearby
tree just as it happened. And when the body of John Roberts was being
returned to his home the cuckoo had followed, singing from tree to tree
all the way to the front door.
Today the pool is a place of contradiction, some say it is a stinking
stagnant hole, while others believe it to be an enchanted grove. We may
never know the true story of Pwll-y-Wrach but it seems wise to stay away
in early spring when the cuckoo calls again.
Ack: Supernatural
Clwyd.by Richard Holland. Published by Gwasg Carreg Gwalch
It's a new dawn, it's a new day it's a new life for the witches pool
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