Category Archives: Scotland
A lost Scottish Pilgrimage site Our Lady’s Well, Stow
The name Stow records the long history of this settlement recording Old English Stow for holy. Here a local legend records an association with King Arthur. Monk Nennius records in 826AD that the King was promised him victory at a great battle in a vision beforehand with the saint appearing on a stone which became a place of pilgrimage. As a consequence he is said to have fought with an image of the Virgin and child on his shield. He did indeed win and in thanks for the victory came to the settlement with a piece of the true cross and a statue of Mary from Cappadocia which he placed in the church at Stow which he established. This according to Nennius was held in great veneration despite being damaged in the border wars. Whether this church was that which became the parish church, now ruined by the road in the centre of the village or the chapel associated with the well is unclear, but Our Lady of Wedale became a major pilgrimage site with a well of Our Lady being associated with the pilgrimage. The name Wedale referring to the site itself. 
The well like many of sites has seen considerable periods of neglect and damage; particularly in the Reformation but equally in the more modern times. Nearby until the aforementioned stone which bore Mary’s foot, was broken up and used as hardcore for a turnpike road. Even more surprising is that the remains of the well chapel were bulldozed as late as 1963 to form a farm access road. During this period the well became more overgrown and derelict.
Interest in the site developed after the period of Catholic emancipation. Benedict monk, Michael Barnett found pieces of a prayer to Our Lady of Wedale and published them in 1910:
‘O Mary, tender-fair, gentle-fair, loving-fair, Mary beloved! Mother of the white lamb! Our Lady of Wedale, pray for us!’
Pilgrims still attended the well long after the reformation for its properties and it is recorded that in 1650 those attending the well were tried for witchcraft. Little else appears to be recorded on the tradition, although interesting the significance of the site is recorded in its association with a local custom, Stow handball which may record association with pilgrimage at the well. The well is goal for the game and if scored the ball would be dipped three times into the water said to represent the name of the father, the son and the holy ghost.
In 2000, local villagers from Stow, Ettrick and Lauderdale decided to restore the well. This then was blessed by the three churches: Roman Catholic, Episcopalian and Church of Scotland. This precipitated the establishment of the Stow Pilgrimage Society which together with the Scottish Guild of Servers and Fraternity of St Boisil set up an annual pilgrimage on the feast of the Assumption in August. A fully ecumenical service is given at the well with full communion being available. However, the society stated:
“There was great interest in the millennium year, but it has trailed off since then. In 2001 the outbreak of foot and mouth disease prevented the ceremony taking place, and the last two years there has been terrible weather: torrential rain. If that happens they let us use the church, but there is absolutely no local interest in the well.”
The pilgrimage would have as many as 40-60 attendees in a good year but 15 in a quieter year and indeed it appears that the pilgrimage itself has gone quiet in recent years and finding any evidence of its continuation is impossible it seems. People still visit as coins can be seen in the well but it is a shame as such pilgrimages are rare in this country compared to Ireland and a site which such a pedigree is very important.
The sacred wells of Stenness
A few years back I was fortunate to travel around Orkney and of course I found time to find one of Orkney’s most famous holy well and had a look for another – which I did not find.
Situated by the side of a minor road in Stenness is a site which has been named Bigswell, however despite the name this neither refers to its size or indeed the well. It is believed that Bigswell derives from the Old Norse bygg meaning barley and vollr meaning field. It would appear that the name has been conveniently attached to the well but does not describe it!
Traditions at the Bigswell
There were two days when the water of the well was thought to be most potent: beltaine around the 1st of May and Midsummer around the 21st June. It was said to be used for those suffering from epilepsy or mental disorders when they would be thrown into the well and then tied to a post nearby and left overnight being repeated if necessary. For other conditions, a certain ritual would need to be observed if the cure was to be effective. That would be to go diesel, or sunwise around the well before drinking from the water and the visiting a nearby standing stone called the Odin Stone which was holed. Here too lovers would swear an Odin Oath after drinking the water. The oath has been sadly forgotten.
The Odin stone
The stone was 140 metres from the well-known standing stones of Stenness and was destroyed in December 1814 because the new owner, a Captain W. Mackay was annoyed at the number of people who would visit the stones destroyed this and was on the way to toppling those at Stenness. Local people were not happy and there were attempts to destroy his holdings. Fortunately, he was legally stopped but not before the Odin Stone was good. The last fragment being a holed piece which was discovered in the 1940s being used for a horse driven mill. Unfortunately, it was a victim of progress. When modernisation came the stone could not be moved and so the owners son unaware of its origin broke it to smithereens, with his father angerly proclaiming:
“You had no damned business to break that stone: that was the Stone o’ Odin that came from Barnhouse!”
Returning to the well, there has been some discussion of which spring is which. For confusing is that there are two springs which could the said spring. One lies on slopping ground at Upper Bigswell and the other in the marsh in the Bigswell. Generally it is the site which is on the old road between Stenness and Orphir that is the said well. The well is now enclosed in a rather functional stone slab well house which has a large slab on the top. It appears designed to give those accessing the water shelter. The water itself flowing into a square chamber in the centre.
Searching for the Haley Hole
Unfortunately, I was less successful trying to find the Haley Hole which is recorded in Hellihole road which was a route to the well near Brownstown. Covered with a well house but no sign could be seen. Despite still being used in the early 20th century with even folklorist Ernest Marwick stating that his father took water when he was ill. The name from the Old Norse ‘heilagr’ meaning ‘Holy’ was doubtlessly dedicated to some Orcadian saint long forgotten!
The mysterious cave and well of St Fillan, Pittenweem.
St Fillan’s Well is one of the most remarkable sites in Britain being situated in an atmospheric chapel set in a cave cell at the bottom of a cliff in the seaside town of Pittenweem.
Saint Fillan was a sixth-seventh-century monk who lived in Fife, working in Aberdour. He is remembered there and Forgan, in the parish church but also on the top of Dunfilian near Comrie, where a rocky seat exists where he is said to have blessed the county, and was later claimed to cure rheumatism. Relics of him, his bell and crozier are in Edinburgh’s Royal Museum of Scotland. Whatever happened to the saint’s physical remains is unclear, but they were probably lost in the Reformation. It is known that at the Battle of Bannockburn, the Abbot of Inchaffray carried the relics into battle and many Scots claimed it was because of this they won!, the most remarkable site associated with the saint is his cave.
A legend of the saint states that he wrote his sermons and read scripture in the cave. However, the cave was so dark he was unable to do so so when he asked God what to do about this problem, God gave St. Fillan a magical glowing left arm. So now Fillan could happily read and write with his right arm, while lighting the pages with his glowing left. Whether the cave was a hermit cell or not is unclear and it is more likely that the saint would use it as a temporary accommodation as he undertook evangelical work around Fife. Certainly, the importance of the cave predates the saint as the settlement itself Pittenweem derives from the Pictish for pit and weem for cave, thus meaning Place of the cave. The cave itself is a natural sea cave, hollowed out by wave action. Now it is a fair way from the sea due to the construction of the harbour. When the saint was alive, it would have been more remote being only reachable by a boat.
Despite the unlikeliness that St Fillan would have used the cave as hermitage, it does have features which would accommodate this. For example, there are flat rocks which could be used as a bed and of course the spring
The spring fills a small pool in the sandy bottom of the cave. I was told locally that it was used to cure eye problems but Ruth and Frank Morris’s 1981 Scottish Healing Wells fails to mention any associations. It is said that the cave was a stopping off point for pilgrims on their way to St Andrews Shrine, in St. Andrews or St Ethernan’s Shrine on the Isle of May. The importance of the site was recognised in 1100 by Edgar, King of Scotland gave it to the Culdees and David I gave it to the monks of the Priory of St Mary the Virgin on the aforementioned May and thus built a priory over the cave and a stairway was built by the monks which ended in a vaulted cellar in the priory. The staircase remains in the cave.
The cave over the ages
It is unclear whether the monks used the cave as simply a shrine, but they may have used its coolness and proximity to the sea to use as storage for food. It also served as a prison during the witch hunts of the 17-18th centuries and was certainly used by smugglers in the 18th century and was used as a rubbish dump. It was rediscovered when in 1900, a horse ploughing in the Priory garden fell down a rubbish filled hole. This was what it was when in 1935 the Rector Canon de Voil and his father dug out this rubbish and built the current shrine in the cave. The altar was consecrated by the Bishop of St Andrews.
The cave today
The cave is entered via an ornate iron gate and a path then goes up a steep slope to the inner part of the cave which is shaped like a Y. The left of this passage lead to the small springhead, whilst the right passage leads to area which has been altered to include an altar.
Since its restoration the cave has been owned by the Bishop Lowe Trust and is entrusted to St John’s Scottish Episcopal Church in Pittenweem who use it every Holy Saturday night hold an ecumenical Easter service due to the similarity between the cave and Christ’s rock-hewn sepulchre The cave is open to the public since 2000 and the key available locally.
Fons Scotiae – The well of Scotland, the well of monarchs
If there was a claim for the Scottish holy well visited by the most famous people it must be the suitably named Scotlandwell. It would add that it is also one of the most picturesque holy wells in Britain and very easy to find – being signposted down a lane with parking off the village that shares its name.
A Roman site
It is said that in the late 1st century A.D the Romans named the well Fons Scotiae’ . Whilts it is known in 84 AD, Roman soldiers were marching between their camps at Lochore in Fife and Ardoch in Perthshire however, there does not appear to be any evidence especially archaeologically, but what is known that a hospital dedicated to St Mary was established in the area in 1250 by the Trinitarian Friars. It is locally said that they utilised the water. Their association may have attracted one of the most famous of Scotland’s kings – Robert the Bruce. It is alleged that he came here to be cured of leprosy. Janet and Colin Bord in their 1985 Sacred Waters note:
“Robert Bruce, King of Scotland (1306-29) suffered from leprosy, and at least three wells were reputedly used by him in his search for a cure. He is said to have been responsible for a well at Prestwick (Ayr) which flowed where he stuck his spear in the sand while resting from his struggles with the English. He stayed for several days, and his leprosy was reputedly cured. He is said to have built a leper hospital for those who could not afford treatment. He also visited the St Lazarus Well at Muswell Hill (London) being granted a free pass by the King of England to do so.”
It is thus said to have become a place of pilgrimage. Another monarch, Mary Queen of Scots also is said to have visited it. However, the Friar’s establishment remembered as Friar Place was demolished in 1587 probably not long after Mary’s patronage at the start of the great Reformation in Scotland.
However, the well itself must have been accessible as Bill Anderton in his 1991 Ancient Britain tells us that:
“ records show that Charles II travelled from his Dunfermline Palace to take the waters.”
Whatever these records are, are in themselves unclear and whilst the ancient royal seat of Dunfermline is indeed not many miles from the site, I have been unable to find further details.
Restored site
The site may have slowly disappeared into obscuring if it was not for the fortitude of local landowners. When in the early 1820s the site, itself common land, could be described as:
“an almost unapproachable slough of mire and filth” and within it “a half ruinous building used sometimes as a washing house and sometimes as a slaughter house.”
This may have been some remains of the Friar’s buildings perhaps and it is impossible that some older stone in the current fabric of the well house could be from this date. The building of the ornamental well and its nearby wash house was done by a Thomas Bruce of Arnot who owned land in the aras between 1857 and 1860 after acquiring the land. He employed David Bryce an important Edinburgh architect to draw up plans for both in 1857 which consisted of a large stone lined bath like chamber covered accessing all around by covered by grill. Over which is an ornate wooden roof, akin to a alpine chalet style. All painted dark green. Water bumbles up through sandy soil in the water quite obviously and then emerges from a small gap into a small circular basin and then run off. Steps go down from both sides to reach the outflow. Using stone available from quarries nearby that the well was completed soon after at the cost of £154 in 1858. On either side of the water spout are the initials TBA for Thomas Bruce of Arnot and his wife Henrietta Dorin embossed. The nearby washhouse also bears TBA and 1860.
Thomas Bruce of Arnot stated in his memoirs:
“The improvement of the village and of its “Well” has cost me more money than some might perhaps say I aught to have expended upon them, but it has been a subject of great interest to me and I have been far more than repaid in one way at least by the gratification it has afforded to the villagers by a desire for whose moral improvement it was that I was mainly actuated in what I did and am still doing.”
Then in 1922 two years after the death of Sir Charles Bruce of Arnot the well and wash house, were handed over to the people of Scotlandwell as a gift and the site is currently looked after by the Parish council.
The bath house locally called ‘The Steamie’ was where laundry was washed, being connected to the well’s underground water source, ceased being used in 1960s but has recently been restored as a small tourist attraction and currently leaflets are given out concerning the well and the bath house
Still curing?
In Ruth and Frank Morris’s 1978 Scottish Healing Well they note:
“In October 1978 we met there a women, her husband and brother who had travelled from Edinburgh a round trip of some 80 miles which they frequently made, to fill to two large bottles with clear well water. One of the men, a cancer sufferer had been induced to take the water some time before and found it did him some good , clearing a stubborn body rash that he continued to use the water: “If it was good enough for Robert the Bruce, it’s good enough for me. ”
However, reaching for the metal cup I took myself a large gulp not noticing that the sign that he had read when Ruth and Frank Morris had visited in 1978: ‘Health giving water of Scotlandwell was for many years used to help cure the sick…” was replaced with UNFIT TO DRINK DO NOT DRINK!
Oh well this was a few summers ago and I am still okay. Whether you drink or not, Scotlandwell is one of the country’s most attractive and perhaps oldest healing springs.
Beside the brewery – Glasgow’s Lady Well
“so called after a fountain at the bottom of the Craigs…sacred in Popish times to the Virgin.”
One of the most ornate holy wells in an urban environment is Glasgow’s Lady Well. Laying check and jowl to a brooding industrial landscape of Tennent’s Brewery (does this mean holy water is in the Special Brew?)
It is noted by in the 1935 Glasgow Evening News ‘Encyclopedia of Glasgow’, Glasgow Evening News that the waters became polluted once the Necropolis was built they were redirected below it where the spring exited from the brae. The earliest mention of the well is mentioned by George Eyre-Todd 1934 History of Glasgow who stated that in 1715 when a John Black was paid a salary of 400 merks yearly to keep the well clean:
“Black was to furnish them with chains, buckets, sheaves, ladles, and other necessary graith, as well as with locks and iron bands. He was ‘to cleanse, muck and keep them clean,’ and to lock and open them in due time, evening and morning. In case of failure he was liable to a penalty of £100 Scots.”
Thus 1715 appears to be the earliest mention. It is likely to be much older, being noted on old maps. It may have provided water for Romans travelling the Carntyne Highway towards Antonine Wall. In medieval times it lay outside the old city wall.
Our Lady or local Lady
Paul Bennett in his 2017 Ancient and Holy Wells of Glasgow states that although it is assumed to be derived from Or Lady the site may be derived from a local benefactor, Lady Lochow, who lived nearby and built a hospital at the old Gorbels in the 14th century. However, there is no evidence bar the possibility it would be associated with the similarly unsubstantiated belief that it was sunk when commoners were denied access to the nearby Priest’s Well.
Restored site.
The well head was built in 1835-6 by the City Council and Merchants House when the area behind was converted into a burial ground; the necropolis. An account recorded in J. R. Walker’s 1882 Holy Wells in Scotland in the Proceedings Society Antiquaries Scotland states:
“THE LADY WELL, Ladywell Street, Glasgow. This well has been restored and rebuilt, as it bears. I have not been able to find any drawing showing the original structure. I cannot possibly imagine that the present building bears any resemblance to the former, it being now strictly classic in design and detail. The cross and urn are of cast metal. “Lady Love” or “Lady Well,” so called after a fountain at the bottom of the Craigs (now included in the Necropolis), sacred in Popish times to the Virgin.”
The structure originally was an open round artesian well and was developed into a classical style with the date being carved upon its lintel stone. The site remains a source of water until the 1860s when fresh water was the piped from Loch Katrine rather than another legend which claims it was closed up being a source of plague. There was later restoration in 1875, probably when the well head was capped, and then again in 1983 by the Tennent Caledonian Breweries beside which it incongruously lays. The well itself is more of an ornate folly head with its tureen like basin unlike any holy well I have ever seen nestled in its classical portico. It certainly fits into the grandeur of the necropolis above but as a holy well it is perhaps a little lacking in romance; however it is better off preserved than completely lost! It must mean something to a number of people for the basin and the base are littered with coins which surprisingly considering they are not in water have not been taken!
Armchair holy wells – a Youtube focus part 2 Scotland
As noted last month due to the fact we are in lock down I shall continue to visit the holy wells via Youtube. This time we are visiting Scotland and we start with an excellent overview of the folklore given some while back by some unknown researcher! 🙂
In search of rag wells: St Mary’s Well, Culloden – a photo archive
First sighting of a hybrid votive offering custom a lock lock at a rag well.
wide array of coloured rags some of some age.
A number of trees are ‘adorned’ with anti-establishment slogans.
The most recent rag
A branch with a collection of cotton rags slowly being covered with algae and rotting and an appropriate tartan one.
Lots of iron encrusted coins in the stream of the spring
A children’s bike helmet has this been attached as thanks for surviving an accident?
Tree beside the wall of the well has the largest number of coloured rags.
A scarf attached to a tree the furthest away from the springhead.
In search of rag wells: The Clootie or St. Boniface’s Well, Munlochy, Scotland – a photo archive
This year we are focusing on the often controversial subject of rag or clootie wells. The topic has already been explored on this blog a while back but with new research it is worth exploring again. So this year either view detailed history/folklore discussion or photo archive we shall be exploring the topic again. To start rather than a detailed History/folklore blog post it would be good to look at the range of clooties or rags left at the country’s most famous example with my ideas of why and I hope it might encourage discussion.
Over Beltane 2017 I had the privilege to spend much of the day at this famed holy well. My aim was two fold:
a – to photo as many as possible of the clooties and other offerings at the well as a record
b – to hopefully encounter visitors attaching clooties
Below is a photo archive cataloguing some of the diverse form of offerings at the well. For the background to this site please see the earlier post. I shall give my recollections of b in a later post with another on the site’s history
I have tried to categorise each item and give some rationale…it’s a controversial subject and now the site has been cleared recently do doubtless many of these have gone, which is not necessarily a bad thing in many cases!
Underwear – were these spare or did they completely undress? Are they associated with problems with these parts of the body? There is the famous bra fence in Australia associated with cures of cancer is this the same or are they ex votos as thanks?
Shoes – Similarly for foot problems or thanks for travelling safely…some new shoes as well
Teddies and dolls – personal items of a sick child perhaps?
Flags! – Hope for Nationalism and a record for overseas visitors
Football scarfs – wishing the team good luck!
Tabards – asking for solving work problems or to give protection for workers!
Personal messages – hope, thanks and memories of friendship renewed
Bags – good luck for school
Plaster casts – speak for themselves
Odd eggs! – Cowabunga! Fertility perhaps or just an attempt at egg rolling!?
This one’s been here for a while!
And there are many many more…perhaps enough for another blog post at the end!
Burghead and its ancient wells
“An old man suggested that they should dig in a certain sport, where according to immemorial tradition, a well would be found.”
Gentlemen’s Magasine 1828
Set out on a peninsula of land in the Moray Firth is the curious town of Burghead: a town which is a world away from much of Mainland Scotland. A town which despite it’s rather drab exterior and uniform nature is one which has many mysteries – it’s unique Clavie Burning, the largest surviving Pictish fort and the Well…all three unique in the Scotland and indeed the world and of course not necessarily unconnected.
I arrived on a windswept January, the day of the burning of the Clavie, an ancient evocative tradition which may have itself have an indirect link to the well. Drawing the key, I approached the well which is enclosed in a high wall strangely juxtaposition within the urban landscape. The first thing which strikes one is the primeval and ominous nature of the site – an opening cut into the hillside, dark and foreboding. Twenty rough and worn rock cut steps lead down to this chamber itself cut within the rocky crag of the peninsula. As one approaches the chamber its size, five metres by five metres and four metres high, its gloomy nature evidence – your voice becoming more and more echoed as you descend into the darkness.
Water filled up to the first two steps making it impossible to see the chamber. R W Feachem (1963) describes the site well noting that:
“The well comprises a rectangular chamber about 16 feet square and 12 feet high, with rounded angles, cut out of rock at the base of a crag … some 20 feet below the present ground level above. The floor is bordered by a ledge surrounding a basin 10 feet square and 4 feet deep, again with rounded corners. When found, during the improvements (commenced in 1808,) the chamber roof was broken and the entrance ill-defined; and the archway now forming the latter was then constructed.”
These ‘improvements’ involved as well recutting the steps and using gunpowder to deepen the pool. These changes probably removed some other features which are no longer visible such as the mosaic pavement around the well and paintings on the wall. This is a considerable shame for these features seen according to Grant (1898) in 1809 would have possibly allowed us to gauge the origin of the chamber. Mosaics and paintings suggest of course a Roman origin and the discovery of them may have lead to the view that the site was Roman, gaining it the name Roman Well. This is a view espoused by Young () who compares it with other similar sites. However, his argument is not particularly persuasive.
The Pictish fort
Pictish origins.
Burghead is a unique place. At the very end of its peninsula are the remains of a vitrified Pictish fort, which dates from the 4th to 6th Century. There is no argument that the well has some link to the Pictish settlement, the discovery of a bull carved onto a slab, a common Pictish motif was found in the well. The position of the well on the edge of the ramparts is problematic. It suggests a later origin for why would it not be enclosed safely. However, others argue a more ritual origin. One find, a stone head was found in the well. Readers of the blog will know that there is considerable debate over wells and heads. A number of ancient wells have been associated with skulls or beheading legends, particularly in the Celtic world and indeed an argument has been made of the existence of a head cult into recent times. Another ritual aspect, possibly unique in Britain to the Picts, was the ritual drowning. Historical sources state that Talorgen, son of the King of Atholl was drowned in 739 AD and it is possible that this site was a chamber used such. However, no human remains were found in the excavation to support this view.
Christianisation
If we consider that Grant’s observation to be correct what did they see? A theory was that the well was an early Christian baptistery. Certainly the find of a stone described by Rhind in his 1870 Name Book as:
“a square stone having a cross upon the centre the margin of which was covered with … knotwork cut in bold relief.”
This stone now lost suggests an early Christian cross, the knot work potentially Pictish in origin. A good example being the 9th century Drosten Stone discovered at St Vigeans near Arbroath. The crudeness of the cross suggesting an adoption by Christians which would fit the view of the site as a baptistery. This was probably used in the cult of St Ethan, a local missionary saint of the 7th century. It is possible that these features were from its adoption and are wall paintings of the saint. Little is known of him and I feel his name is too similar to Aethan and so I assume they are the same. However, this is not the only ancient well in the town. Tucked away on the outskirts, not far from the maltings and once along the old railway which served the town, is St Aethan’s Well. St Aiden of course was associated with the Iona community and is known to have converted the Picts in the 7th Century, he would have certainly visited Burghead.
Why should a well named after an important evangelical saint here? Its location does not seem to be near any landing nor does it appear to have been associated with any chapel or church. Indeed the position of the church is a possible clue. How old is this well one wonders. It certainly is not as old as the Pictish well and I theorise it was probably established as a focus of faith once the former fell from favour and was possibly lost. The support for this argument is the position of St Aethan’s Chapel which is a mere few yards from the Pictish Well. Surely this is more likely to be the said holy well and not this fairly simple spring. If it had been used ritually by them he would have sought to Christianise this not ignore it. Therefore it also seems probably that the Pictish well was probably lost whether physically (noting it was discovered in 1809) or spiritually, and thus requiring a re-focus but why a spring so far out? Perhaps the geology may explain this. Of course when it was lost is unclear. Evidence would have come from one find Spanish coins but these were lost. The presence of such coins is interesting – it suggests again ritual use, well wishing in its most familiar guise perhaps, but when? One would suggest from the period of the Anglo-Spanish conflict when it is plausible that some secretive links with Spain may have been established. This would also suggest that the association was also Catholic in nature and indicates the well was probably overtly Christianised. This might highlight when the well disappeared and a new St Aethan’s Well appeared created by Catholics in the dying days of a Catholic nature as the Reformation begun to sweep away such practices. However, this is all conjecture.
Interestingly, Morris and Morris (1986) give a rather simple entry for St Aethan’s Well, under the name St Aidan, states that it was close to the railway and difficult of access. Thus suggesting that they did not find it. That is probably likely as the site was only cleared by the Burghead Trust in February 2014. The group have done a great job providing a large information board which states:
“St. Aethan or St. Aidan as he is also known was a follower of St. Columba in Iona in the 7th century. He brought Christianity to the northern Picts and is the patron saint of Burghead. The water from the well comes from a spring higher up the hill and was thought to have healing powers.”
Chairs have been provided and two metal tankards and dog bowls provided suggesting the water is potable. The water flows through a metal pipe into a shallow stone lined chamber set beneath the sand. The original source is probably that closer to the cliff face which arises in a similar chamber. Both are covered in a metal grille which is a little unsightly, but stops the stray foot getting wet!
Perhaps Christianity was slow to make an impact on the Burghead community and forced to exist on its outskirts..attending the day of its great clavie burning it is easy to see how pagan forces could have resisted the force of Christianity.
A Scottish well with many names – St Mary’s Well Culloden
As the country reflects upon the outcome of the Scottish independence referendum, I thought it would germane to consider one of the county’s most fascinating holy well especially being near a contentious battle of course! Enclosed in a woodland settling is one of Scotland’s greatest clootie well, Tobar na Coille often called St. Mary’s Well, but translated means the well of the wood. It’s position not far from the battle site of Culloden resulted in it becoming called the Culloden Well. Indeed it appears to have even more names – The Blue Well and the Tobar n’Oige of the Well of Youth. Surely, a significant site.
The fabric is unusual as well. It arises in a 18” diameter and 24” deep chamber which is surrounded by a circular building, more like a circular animal pound or dare I say it a urinal. Why the arrangement? Is it to protect the visitors from the vagaries of the spring, prevent animals entering or perhaps protect the decency of anyone who would bath here. However, that later idea is not supported by similar wells elsewhere and the spring is not big enough for a dip I feel.
St Mary’s Well, Culloden © Copyright Jim Thomson and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.
A moved well
Not far from the well was a Chapel to St Mary, whose only remembrance being the local farm, Chapelton Farm, Balloch. As a site is did not survive the 1746 battle and nothing can be traced on the ground. It is possible that a spring of water near the old chapel was the original St Mary’s well and after the battle it was moved to this spring. This would explain the name changes perhaps and it has only recently become a true holy well.
Rich folklore
The most prominent piece of folklore is the traditional rituals done at the well. One should walk round the well three times sunwise and then after drinking from the well tie a rag on the nearby tree. This is because the well was a clouttie well and today the well’s surrounds are adorned with them however even in 1979 the Morrises bemoaned the use of modern fibres stating:
“There were many rags in evidence during the visit…but since the majority were of unrottable man-made fibre it was obvious that the visitors did not fully understand the purpose of this part of the ritual.”
This sadly continues, but there is evidence of traditional fabric. The day to go to the well was the first Sunday in May, which underlines the association of the site with the old Pagan Celtic tradition of Beltaine. A visit on May day would reveal wine!
Morris and Morris (1980) inform us that in the 1930s as a many as a dozen buses were running from Inverness to carry visitors to the spot, who would drop coins and several pounds were recovered from the well and given to charity. Four thousand in all…today some come but not as many. However, even in the 1940s the Inverness Courier reported that on the first Sunday of May six Cameron Highland, wished over a well in a Tunisian olive grow as they tied their cloots that they be back at St. Mary’s Culloden. They survived the War and did meet! Such large crowds attracted the wrong sorts and stories of debauchery were spread by the papers and the more intolerant members of the Kirk.
Interestingly, it is said that the well or chapel gained its name from the belief that Mary herself lived in the area and administered to the sick. This may be based on the idea of a local ‘priestess’ who would stay at the well and help visitors…or more likely a way of endorsing this either Pagan or commercial enterprise.
What’s in a name?
If the real St Mary’s Well lies elsewhere, what can we say of this one. Clearly the name, Tobar n’Oige is not far from Tír na nÓg, well of the dead. This is significant because Beltaine was one of the times where the wraths and spirits could be seen and the gates to the afterlife were open. Or does it refer to the battle not far away? There is a well nearer the battle site which does bear the name, Well of the dead. Did this gain the name when the other adopted St. Mary, or does this suggest a strong Beltaine tradition in the area. The obvious explanation is that this is associated with the battle but that may be coincidental?
All in all in its woodland setting and especially seen on a misty spring day..St Mary’s Well is one of the country’s most romantic sites. One wonders what witness to the strife of Culloden it saw..thankfully we can discuss such matters with democracy.
St Mary’s Well, Culloden © Copyright don cload and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.
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