<< Our Photo Pages >> Mother Shipton's Cave and Petrifying Well - Holy Well or Sacred Spring in England in Yorkshire (North)
Submitted by Runemage on Saturday, 16 July 2005 Page Views: 17313
Springs and Holy WellsSite Name: Mother Shipton's Cave and Petrifying Well Alternative Name: The Dropping WellCountry: England
NOTE: This site is 0.352 km away from the location you searched for.
County: Yorkshire (North) Type: Holy Well or Sacred Spring
Nearest Town: Knaresborough
Map Ref: SE345570
Latitude: 54.007874N Longitude: 1.475085W
Condition:
5 | Perfect |
4 | Almost Perfect |
3 | Reasonable but with some damage |
2 | Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site |
1 | Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks |
0 | No data. |
-1 | Completely destroyed |
5 | Superb |
4 | Good |
3 | Ordinary |
2 | Not Good |
1 | Awful |
0 | No data. |
5 | Can be driven to, probably with disabled access |
4 | Short walk on a footpath |
3 | Requiring a bit more of a walk |
2 | A long walk |
1 | In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find |
0 | No data. |
5 | co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates |
4 | co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map |
3 | co-ordinates scaled from a bad map |
2 | co-ordinates of the nearest village |
1 | co-ordinates of the nearest town |
0 | no data |
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I have visited· I would like to visit
peter56 visited on 1st Sep 2010 - their rating: Cond: 3 Amb: 3 Access: 4
kthdsn visited - their rating: Cond: 4 Amb: 3 Access: 5
Runemage have visited here
Average ratings for this site from all visit loggers: Condition: 3.5 Ambience: 3 Access: 4.5
Although this site is very commercialised nowadays I feel it shouldn't be overlooked as an ancient place that would have been revered for it's magical properties, a spring whose waters could turn any object suspended in it to stone, with an adjacent cave. I have no evidence for my view, it just feels "right" to me.
The Mother Shipton attraction is set in a picturescue location at the bottom of the Nidd Gorge, on the opposite side of the river to the Castle. Admission is £4.95 for adults and £3.75 for children, (they are given a questionnaire to complete on the trip and a bar of chocolate awaits those with the right answers) and covers parking until 5.30pm so if you wish to leave the car there and walk into town after seeing the sights, then that’s fine. The walk to the attractions is steep in places and there are steps but no ramps, there’s not enough space to install any unfortunately, so it’s not suitable for anyone in a wheelchair or severely impaired mobility.
The rock formations across the river are lovely to look at, as are the picturescue buildings, some painted in a local chequerboard design. The car-park is beside one of a few picnic areas, then there’s a walk through a Beech avenue which has a lovely atmosphere. Some natural sculptures and some humorous metal ones are placed every few yards, so that at this time of year, there’s something to see aside from the buds on the trees and the prolific wild garlic which assaults the nostrils with as much force as the loud shusshhh of the Nidd flowing over the weir by the old Flaxmill echoes in the eardrums.
The first attraction is the spring which feeds the Well. The source isn’t visible, but the small stream is, it has a lovely special feel to it for anyone sensitive to these things. It comes from an underground lake through an aquifer then passes under the path and over the top of the petrifying well. It’s the minerals contained in this water* which can literally turn objects to stone within a few months. The pattern the water has made through the stone and moss on the top of the Well is interesting, completely natural yet it looks like a maze.
Pass under the branches of an old Yew tree and down a flight of steps, to arrive at the Petrifying Well. It’s not a well in the sense of a hole on the ground, but more like water falling over a rock overhang where strategically placed objects are suspended to become petrified. The water has a very soft feel to it although not knowing what was in it then I didn’t have a taste. There are recordings which you can switch on to listen to the history and legends of the area. Up a few steps to the wishing-well, this is set in a natural rock formation at the back of the Petrifying Well, it’s a ledge where the waters pool, you have to crouch down and place your right hand in the water and make a wish, (of course I did) and let your hand dry naturally. Then it’s back down those and up another few steps into Mother Shipton’s cave where the recording gives a lot of detail about the life and times of Ursula Shipton nee Sontheil, born in the cave in 1488, deformed, twisted and as she grew she developed a hooked nose and chin that today many people think of as the typical appearance of storybook witch. Ursula had the gift of Prophecy and became a legend in her own time and was visited by the celebs of the era. Her cave feels warm and cosy inside, and the statue of her at the back is a nice touch.
The small museum a little further down the path completes the visit, and there’s a good selection of inexpensive souvenirs and booklets. There’s a café and kiddies play area on site near the entrance, too.
*Calcium, sodium and magnesium with traces of lead, zinc, iron, manganese and aluminium as forms of sulphates and carbonates with some chlorides and a trace of silica. When it emerges into the open air, calcite is deposited with the other minerals, most commonly forming Tufa and Travertine, which literally turns to stone anything left suspended in the flow within a few months.
For more information see the Mother Shipton's Cave website, Historic England List ID 100132, Pastscape Monument No. 1065638, and the Journal of Antiquities entry for The Dropping Well, Knaresborough, North Yorkshire.
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