St Baldred’s Well, East Linton
Preston, East Linton EH40 3DS

Historic churches and the faintest traces of an early hermit add up to a rewarding string of pilgrimage sites, a stopping point on the Forth to Farne Way
Highlights
- Holy well by roadside
- Churches and chapels founded by St Baldred
The Apostle of the Lothians, St Baldred left his mark across this corner of Scotland. Several churches, a holy well, and a spectacular hermitage chapel bear witness to this energetic priest from Lindisfarne. He travelled here at great personal risk in the early 8th century, a time when hostile Pictish tribes were driving out English settlers and missionaries.
Yet St Baldred is almost out of reach, despite such a spectacular legacy. The best surviving link to his veneration is a holy well on the outskirts of East Linton. If it were any more neglected, it would be inaccessible, but it has been restored in the past and no doubt will be again.
When I visited, the ivy had all but closed over its little flight of stone steps. At the bottom, amid the undergrowth, are stone remains of a solid well chamber, which still gathers a clear pool of spring water beside the main road out of East Linton.
This is the closest relic of St Baldred, a holy well that flows with his blessing. But there are four churches founded by him within a five-mile radius, plus a hermit’s cave and a hermit’s island.
One of the churches is on the other side of the road from the holy well, Prestonkirk parish church. Although usually locked, you can walk around the outside and see medieval stonework in its chancel. It used to house St Baldred’s statue, but this was accidentally destroyed when the church was restored in 1770.
An information panel by the far churchyard gate records an extraordinary story. St Baldred served three parishes, and when he died, his body miraculously split into three identical corpses, allowing each church to have his relics: St Baldred in three persons.
The three churches concerned are Prestonkirk itself, Tyninghame 1½ miles to the north-east, and Auldhame 4 miles to the north, near the coast by Bass Rock.
Even with these multiple graves to confuse Pictish invaders and Protestant reformers, not one of St Baldred’s shrines survives. A more conventional story is that his remains were discovered at Tyninghame during the 11th century and translated to Durham Cathedral.
Tyninghame’s church is now a ruin in private grounds, having been destroyed by Danes in the 10th century and then relocated. Auldhame’s church has gone too, although in 2005 archaeologists unearthed what might be its foundations, in a field near the village.
St Baldred the hermit
St Baldred also has a hermitage cave and chapel in East Lothian, where he used to retreat from his busy round of pastoral and missionary work. The cave and hermitage chapel can be seen near Tantallon Castle, which is 5 miles north of East Linton.
The hermitage chapel is halfway up the forbidding Bass Rock island, 1½ miles offshore from Tantallon Castle. I didn’t visit the rock but managed to discern the ruins of the chapel from the mainland with a telephoto lens. This seemingly bleak isle is covered in seabirds, to the extent that the chapel ruins are a silhouette against their white bodies.
The saint visited the rock for solitude during the 8th century, probably using either a simple shelter or natural cave. The ruined structure now visible was built towards the end of the 15th century to mark the site. Other chapels were probably here beforehand.
There is a reference to the chapel’s restoration and reconsecration in 1542. Another reference of 1576 states simply that the chapel no longer required a reader. It was basically a shrine to the saintly hermit, no doubt surplus to requirements after the 1560 Reformation.
St Baldred’s cave is at the back of Seacliff Beach, at the foot of a rocky crag by the footpath. It was rediscovered in the 1830s, and despite the dedication, it is thought unlikely the hermit really did use it since it was full of Iron Age artefacts when excavated. A nearby well is dedicated to him too, but it is capped and in the middle of farmland.
Whitekirk and Haddington
There is a fourth church, called Whitekirk, founded by St Baldred in the village next to Tyninghame. This became a particularly important centre of pilgrimage in later medieval times, with a shrine statue and a holy well dedicated to Our Lady.
The future Pope Pius II came to Whitekirk on pilgrimage in 1435 after surviving a storm at sea on a trip to Scotland. The well has dried up and its location is now uncertain. The statue was destroyed, and even the church has changed colour, its exterior whitewash now recalled only by the village name.
An annual pilgrimage from Whitekirk to St Mary’s Kirk at Haddington was set up in the 1970s but had been stopped at the time of research. The pilgrimage was more closely connected with the Blessed Virgin than St Baldred. Coincidentally, John Knox was born in or near Haddington, but was not a fan of pilgrimage or shrines even so.
Haddington’s church merits a visit purely on its architectural merits – a magnificently restored Church of Scotland building that also contains an ecumenical side chapel, once the focus of the abandoned pilgrimage. A lady in the town later told me the pilgrimage had been stopped because of wrangling between denominations.
Directions
Prestonkirk Parish Church, Preston Road (B1047), Preston, East Linton EH40 3DS
W3W: dial.widen.blocks
GPS: 55.9915N 2.6539W well
Prestonkirk church and its neighbouring holy well are easy to find on the outskirts of East Linton, by the B1407 heading northeast towards Smeaton. The holy well is directly opposite the eastern perimeter of the churchyard – the far end as you drive out of town. To locate the well, find the start of the John Muir Way, a broad footpath opposite the churchyard boundary. The steps to the well lead down from the start of the footpath, a couple of metres in from the road, with a handrail to help in the slippery undergrowth.
Visiting Bass Rock is possible as part of a bird-watching day trip from the Scottish Seabird Centre. The centre is in North Berwick, but boats leave from Dunbar. Prices are £135, and the trips book up early during the summer. Refunds are given if the boat is unable to cross due to weather or sea conditions. For details, tel: 01620 890 202, or website: www.seabird.org.
The churches at Whitekirk and Haddington are easily found in the middle of their villages. Whitekirk was closed when I visited, but Haddington is open to visitors every afternoon from 1:30 pm–4 pm from 1 May to the end of September. Its website is at: www.stmaryskirk.co.uk, address: St Mary’s Kirk, B6368, Haddington EH41 4DA.
Amenities
Key facts

Britain’s Pilgrim Places
This listing is an extract from Britain’s Pilgrim Places, written by Nick Mayhew-Smith and Guy Hayward and featuring hundreds of similar spiritually charged sites and landscapes from across Britain.
Proceeds from sale of the book directly support the British Pilgrimage Trust, a non-profit UK charity. Thank you.
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Tom Jones
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Tom Jones
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