Saint · St Albans · Legendary
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Where the saint's head fell, the executioner's eyes dropped out beside it.
See it clearly
St Albans Cathedral is open daily; go in through the Welcome Centre. The holy well site near the bottom of Holywell Hill is now under housing, with a modern well-head marking roughly where it was.
Up on the hill ahead is St Albans Cathedral, built where Britain's first martyr was beheaded, and where, legend says, a spring burst from the ground.
The cathedral stands on the hill where Alban, Britain's first Christian martyr, is said to have died. He sheltered a fleeing priest, was converted, and gave himself up in the priest's cloak. Led across the river to the hilltop, he grew thirsty and prayed, and water sprang up at his feet. When his head was struck off, the executioner's eyes fell out beside it. A later version has the head rolling downhill and a well gushing where it stopped, remembered in the name Holywell Hill, whose spring was later prized for healing. The abbey itself is also reputed to be haunted by ghostly monks.