Bride-wells and lady-wells are sacred wells which abound in the British Isles. People visited the wells for their traditional virtues of healing and divination. In fact the water of some holy wells has indeed been found to contain curative properties, mostly due to the presence of certain minerals. But the healing influence of the wells was due to more than their medicinal qualities. The well itself was viewed as a shrine dedicated to the miraculous emergence of living water, in all cultures a symbol of generation, purification, and the stuff of life itself.

The holy wells of the British Isles were, in fact, such popular places of worship in pagan times, that the early Roman Church took great pains to stamp them out. But, though the form changed, the essential mystery continued unaltered: the well as pagan temple was hijacked into a Christian shrine. Pilgrimages on St. Brigid's [St. Bride’s] day, the old Celtic festival of Imbolc on February 1st. was very common and numerous holy wells are in fact dedicated to this saint, who was once a Celtic goddess, Brighde,

Dreaming at holy wells was also used as a method of foretelling the future, possibly an echo of pagan times when, it seems, a female oracle presided over the well. This ancient practice was preserved down the years, albeit in a humbler manner, by the custom of country girls who would seek to know their future husband at the well, to seek the safe return of a loved one or to ask to be blessed with a child.