Twentypenny Well, Duddingston, Edinburgh, Midlothian

Healing Well:  OS Grid Reference – NT 2815 7259

Getting Here

 

Site shown on 1852 map

From Duddingston, head along the Old Church Lane to the Delf Well, and from then to the Horse Well and, from here, walk along the small footpath that runs along the northwest side of Duddingston Loch.  Less than 100 yards past the Horse Well you’ll notice, on the left-hand side of the path, a stone trough with a fast flow of water running into it.  That’s the spot!

Archaeology & History

Another little-known and all but forgotten healing well, illustrated on the 1852 Ordnance Survey map of the area, but all history and traditions relating to the site are seemingly forgotten (surely not?).

 

The well at the path-side
The clear drinking water runs into the stone trough

The well originally appeared a little further up the slope, closer to the road in the brambles, but Time has brought the waters lower.  The name “twentypenny” is a curious one.  We know of many Penny Wells across the country: some (like the trees) are sites where coins were given to the spirits of the place as an offering for goodness or to heal a given affliction; others were so-named as the price of one penny was given for a draught of the waters.  Twenty pennies is something of an anomaly.  Somebody somewhere must surely know something?

References:

  1. Bennett, Paul, Ancient and Holy Wells of Edinburgh, TNA: Alva 2017.

© Paul BennettThe Northern Antiquarian

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Tod’s Well, Comiston, Edinburgh, Midlothian

Healing Well (destroyed):  OS Grid Reference – NT 239 692

Also Known as:

  1. Three Foxes Well

Archaeology & History

Springs at Comiston, 1632 map

Springs at Comiston, 1832 map

A renowned site of once clear running water, the Tod’s Well got its name from being the abode of foxes many centuries ago.  It was one of the five well-known ‘Comiston Springs’ as they were known—each dedicated to a certain animal—but the eternally present water in this venerable landscape was corrupted from Nature’s course by the usual Industrialists as early as 1681, so as to feed the polluting edifice of Edinburgh city.  James Colston (1890) told how,

“The Town Council entered into a contract with a Dutchman, named Peter Bruschi (aka Peter Brauss) for the sum of £2,900, “to bring the water of Tod’s Well (Anglice fox) at Comiston to Edinburgh, in a leaden-pipe of a three-inch bore, to be laid one foot deep in the ground.””

When the local council upgraded the water supplies in 1820, this piping was replaced to feed the ever-needy merchants and marketeers.  In Hope & Telford’s (1813) survey, the water from here was described as “constantly pure” and “excellent.”

References:

  1. Bennett, Paul, Ancient and Holy Wells of Edinburgh, TNA: Alva 2017.
  2. Colston, James, The Edinburgh and District Water Supply, Edinburgh 1890.
  3. Harris, Stuart, The Place-Names of Edinburgh: Their Origins and History, Gordon Wright: Edinburgh 1996.
  4. Hope, Thomas C. & Telford, Thomas, Reports on the Means of Improving the Supply of Water for the City of Edinburgh, A. Constable: Edinburgh 1813.

© Paul BennettThe Northern Antiquarian

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Horse Well, Duddingston, Edinburgh, Midlothian

Healing Well:  OS Grid Reference – NT 28198 72642

Getting Here

Horse Well on 1852 map

Get to the Delf Well from Duddingston and keep walking along the lochside road for 60-70 yards, where you go through the black metal gate in the fence on your left.  Walk down the slope just a few yards and (drought dependent!) you’ll see an initial damp patch where the well used to arise 150 years ago; just a few yards further down the slope is the more notable spring water of the Horse Well below you.

Archaeology & History

The site is shown on the 1852 map of the area where it was later “capped” and used by the old local water authority.  Thankfully the water has managed to escape and is once more feeding the birds and the land, running into the loch below.  When we arrived here, a crow was drinking from the waters.

Horse Well & its herbs

Although you’d expect that this was once a watering-place for horses, the name of the well may relate to the Scottish folk-name of the herb Veronica beccabunga, generally known as Brooklime or European Speedwell, but locally called Horse-well grass—some of which seemed to be growing in the watery spring amidst the other plants.  As a herb it was used in the treatment of scurvy.  The history of the well however, seems all but forgotten…

References:

  1. Bennett, Paul, Ancient and Holy Wells of Edinburgh, TNA: Alva 2017.
  2. Grant, William (ed.), Scottish National Dictionary – volume 5, SNDA: Edinburgh 1958.

© Paul BennettThe Northern Antiquarian

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Fountain Well, Edinburgh, Midlothian

Healing Well:  OS Grid Reference – NT 26082 73692

Also Known as:

  1. Canmore ID 52238
  2. Netherbow
  3. Wellhead

Getting Here

Fountina Well on 1852 map

Fountain Well on 1852 map

Get onto the Royal Mile road (which comprises Lawn Market, High Street and Canongate) which runs down from the castle; and near the bottom of the High Street section (between North Bridge and St. Mary’s Street), on the left side of the road you’ll see a large upright monument which was formerly a stone drinking fountain.  You can’t really miss it!

Archaeology & History

Found just yards away from the house of the religious lunatic, John Knox, this is one of several wells that could once be found along the old High Street, or Royal Mile, near the middle of the city.  A fast-flowing spring of water was contained within this solid stone monument first built around 1675 by the King’s mason, Robert Mylne.  The fountainhead was rebuilt at a later date and it supplied water for the inhabitants of the old town.

Fountain Well, Edinburgh

Fountain Well, Edinburgh

Fountain Well, early 19th C

Fountain Well, early 19th C

It has a small semi-circular water trough at its western base and is ornamented on this and its eastern side with small mythical fauns, out of which water emerged.   The local council should ensure to make the well work again, giving people clean drinking water when they need it.

The local historian Stuart Harris (1996) puzzled over the origin of the name ‘Fountain Well’, wondering whether it related to a nearby mansion, but he wasn’t too clear in his description for those who live outside of the city, where this mansion was.  He wrote:

“It is…reasonable to suppose that the present well got its name from being in the general vicinity of the mansion, and that the mansion and the (Fountain) Close must have been named for another well, now lost, in the close or at its head.  It is suggested in Wilson (1891), but scarcely proved, that it was the Endmyleis Well…which is mentioned in…1567.”

Bereft of natural animism, the site is more likely to be of interest to architects than the usual hydromancers and their exploratory ilk…

References:

  1. Bennett, Paul, Ancient and Holy Wells of Edinburgh, TNA: Alva 2017.
  2. Colston, James, The Edinburgh and District Water Supply, Edinburgh 1890.
  3. Harris, Stuart, The Place-Names of Edinburgh, Gordon Wright: Edinburgh 1996.
  4. Wilson, Andrew P., Milestones in the Royal Mile, John McQueen: Galashiels 1947.
  5. Wilson, Daniel, Memorials of Edinburgh in the Olden Times – 2 volumes, Edinburgh 1891.

© Paul BennettThe Northern Antiquarian

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Delf Well, Edinburgh, Midlothian

Healing Well:  OS Grid Reference – NT 28220 72715

Delf Well on 1852 map

Getting Here

From the south-side of Arthur’s Seat at Duddingston, along Duddingston Road West, turn west along Old Church Lane.  Where the houses finish there’s the loch on your left and the small car-park on your right.  From here, walk above the cars and onto the small footpath.  Barely 20 yards ahead, under the edges of the trees, a sealed oblong concrete water-hole is front of you.  That’s the spot you’re looking for.

Archaeology & History

Delf Well, covered

Only for the purists amongst you, the Delf Well has fallen prey to being capped and piped away so you can no longer drink here.  It is shown on the early 19th century maps of the area and was used as a water supply for the opulent South Lodge of Holyrood Park.  An old metal chain — remains of which are still attached to the covering stone — once had an old cup attached, to enable walkers to drink here.

References:

    1. Bennett, Paul, Ancient and Holy Wells of Edinburgh, TNA: Alva 2017.
    2. Harris, Stuart, The Place-Names of Edinburgh, Gordon Wright: Edinburgh 1996.

Paul BennettThe Northern Antiquarian

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Crawley Spring, Glencorse, Midlothian

Healing Well (covered):  OS Grid-Reference – NT 23894 63346

Archaeology & History

Site of Crawley Spring on 1854 map

Site of Crawley Spring on the 1854 map

Once found flowing freely beneath the shadow of the prehistoric hillfort of Castlelaw, this all-but-forgotten site was thankfully recorded in Hope & Telford’s (1813) survey of Edinburgh’s natural water supply.  Mr Telford said how “This noble spring rises from the bottom of a bank, at the foot of the Castlelaw Hill, at the edge of a small, low, almost marshy meadow close by the Glencorse Burn, a little way below the bridge.”  Twelve years after writing this, the well had been blocked and a cistern built over it.

It was proclaimed by local people to be medicinal (though to what ailments, I cannot find), but there was an effective confirmation of some medicinal qualities in the waters following an analysis in 1810 when very tiny mineral elements were found.  Mr Telford (1813) explained:

“The water is perfectly transparent and colourless, free from every smell and taste and is of excellent quality.  It has, as is the case with almost all spring water, some matters dissolved in it, though in smaller quantities than common… This foreign matter consist of carbonate of lime, muriate of soda, and sulphate of lime, with an excessively minute portion of magnesium salt. The proportions of these ingredients, in each pound, are nearly:

Carbonate of Lime – 0.43 of a grain
Muriate of Soda – 0.10 of a grain
Sulphate of Lime – 0.90 of a grain
Sulphate of Magnesia – 0.05 of a grain

The carbonate of lime is dissolved by means of carbonic acid, which is not in greater quantity than is barely sufficient for the purpose.  All of these ingredients are in themselves innocent to the human body; and in the quantity in which they are present in the water, do not affect its goodness.  The water is perfectly soft and fit for washing, infusing tea and other domestic purposes.  The water, therefore, is exceptional in every respect.”

When it came to the Crawley Spring waters being used to feed the habits of Edinburgh city, there was considerable opposition by the land-owner and local people who were, correctly, concerned that that ecosystem here would be adversely affected if the waters were to disappear.  And so it was that Earth’s blood was taken from the land and the people and the animals, to benefit and feed the religion of Industrialism and ‘progress’ once more…

References:

  1. Bennett, Paul, Ancient and Holy Wells of Edinburgh, TNA: Alva 2017.
  2. Hope, Thomas C. & Telford, Thomas, Reports on the Means of Improving the Supply of Water for the City of Edinburgh, A. Constable: Edinburgh

© Paul BennettThe Northern Antiquarian

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Adam’s Well, Colinton, Edinburgh, Midlothian

Healing Well:  OS Grid Reference – NT 225 691

Archaeology & History

Unlike the Adam’s Well in Kent, deep daan saaaf, this northern site of the same name is not only long lost, but we can find no traditions relating it either—something of an oddity for these northern climes.  It could once be found in the open meadows east of Colinton, near where now the Redford Barracks exist and was a puzzle to the regional historian Stuart Harris (1996), who could find no early accounts of the site.  Although its name may relate to a local man called Adam, there are other examples of wells with this name from Kent to Scotland: the Kent example is deemed as an authentic holy well, whilst examples in Yorkshire and those in southern Scotland relate to the waters themselves being known as ‘Adam’s Ale’ or Adam’s Wine’—an old nickname for water itself!

References:

  1. Bennett, Paul, Ancient and Holy Wells of Edinburgh, TNA: Alva 2017.
  2. Harris, Stuart, The Place-Names of Edinburgh: Their Origins and History, Gordon Wright: Edinburgh 1996.

© Paul BennettThe Northern Antiquarian

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Stock Well, Glasgow, Lanarkshire

Healing Well (lost):  OS Grid Reference – NS 593 648

Also Known as:

  1. Ratten Well

Archaeology & History

This long lost well near the middle of Glasgow was known by this name as early as 1345.  Close to the River Clyde, a wooden structure was built around the well—a stock—and its waters were used by local fishermen.  A local fair used to be held hereby.  It has long since been built over and its original position no longer seems to be known.

Folklore

The old traditional tale behind this site was written in a short piece in the Scottish Journal of Topography oh so long ago now… One pseudonymous “R.M.S.” said that:

“Stockwell Street in the city of Glasgow, is pretty well-known, and everybody in the locality is aware of the ‘Ratten Well’ with its impure waters.  It is said that, in days of yore, when Sir William Wallace had occasion to be in that quarter, he and his party met a band of englishmen at the well.  A battle ensued, and the bodies of the englishmen, who were defeated, were thrown by the incensed Scots into the well.  “Stock it well! Stock it well” exclaimed Wallace, from which expression the street received its name.  So says tradition; and it is even yet believed that the bad quality of the water is owing to the putrefaction of the dead bodies of the englishmen.”

The one thing we can be certain about in this story, is that the Scots wouldn’t be stupid enough to dump dead bodies into their own fresh water supplies.  We must assume some englishman or dodgy corporation was responsible for that bit!

References:

  1. Bennett, Paul, Ancient and Holy Wells of Glasgow, TNA 2017.
  2. Brotchie, T.C.F., “Holy Wells in and Around Glasgow,” in Old Glasgow Club Transactions, volume 4, 1920.
  3. MacKenzie, Peter, Reminiscences of Glasgow and the West of Scotland – volume 1, John Tweed: Glasgow 1865.
  4. “R.M.S.”, “Stockwell Street, Glasgow,” in Scottish Journal of Topography, Antiquities & Traditions, volume 2, July 8, 1848.

© Paul BennettThe Northern Antiquarian

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St. Anne’s Well, Strathaven, Lanarkshire

Holy Well:  OS Grid Reference – NS 7039 4438

Archaeology & History

St Anne's Well on 1865 map

St Anne’s Well on 1865 map

Long since lost it would seem, in a search for this legendary site over the weekend with Gordon, Aisha and Lara, I’m still not certain of the actual status of the site.  Although we found a very fresh water supply still running not far from where the old OS-map showed the original holy well to be, it may be a completely different water source.

There are hardly any references to the spring and those that exist are scant.  In the early 1860s, St. Ane’s Well was mentioned briefly in the Object Name Book of the area:

“This is a good spring well in the southern part of the town of Strathaven.  It is commonly called Tun’s (Tan’s?) Well, but this is an abbreviation of the name.”

Lara plays at a nearby well

Lara plays at a nearby well

Looking down on the waters

Looking down on the waters

More recently, thanks to a communication from the local historian Robert Currie, more information has come to light about the well.  It was described in the local history work by Mary Gebbie (1880).  Mr Currie told me:

“In her Sketches of Avondale and Strathaven…we read: “In a lane off Tod’s Hill was the famous Tann’s Well – obviously a corruption of the celebrated water saint, St. Anne. This spring has within a few years completely dried up. Access was easily had from the castle to it, over the draw-bridge, which is said to have rested on the ledge of the ground and rock on which the fifth house is built south of the bridge. Before this aperture was built up, the inhabitants around took advantage of the pathway for drawing water from the Pomillion, at a place called the Fairy Pool. A little above this comes the Dove Castle; and a half a mile further out is the Gallow Hill.”

He continued:

“That said, the current siting of St. Anne’s Well is located on Lesmahagow Road with (the) site being almost opposite the Council houses bordering on Station Road (there is currently a mini-roundabout near the locus). In recent years the site has become obscured but in my own living memory there was once a plaque authenticating the site and with a garden seat thereby.”

In searching through their own library, Mr Currie and his wife came across more about the site in William Downie’s (1979) book on Strathaven, in which he wrote:

“A small lane off Todshill went down to a cluster of houses called St. Anne’s Well nestling on the sloping ground beside the mill dam. In 1911 these houses were acquired and demolished by the Town Improvement Committee. A row of houses backing backing on to Powmillon Burn were also demolished at the same time and a retaining wall with railings erected, so opening up a very fine view of the castle and burn etc.”

The dedication here to the mythic figure of St. Anne (mother of the Virgin Mary and grandmother of Jesus) is isolated and mysterious.  No church is dedicated to her in the area, nor other relative christian remains.  Her appearance in Strathaven is something of an oddity.  There was a Duchess ‘Ann’ Hamilton of Strathaven Castle who lived 200 yards away at Strathaven Castle on the other side of the river that might have given her name to the well, but this is very unlikely.  More probable is that St. Anne was used as the mythic figure who covered an earlier dedication to the prima mater, or Cailleach—although there are no remains that relate to Her either.  However, the existence of St Mary’s church and an associated well to the north, along with a burn dedicated to a “maiden” in the same parish to the northwest add to the cailleach’s potential…..but all tales of Her have seemingly been forgotten.

…So it seems that the spring of water that Lara, Aisha, Gordon and I came across was obviously not the same place, but exists just below the roadside where the disused railway line is.  It’s close to St Anne’s Well – but is not the same water source.

References:

  1. Downie, Fleming, A History of Avondale and Strathaven, Eric Moore: Glasgow 1979.
  2. Gebbie, Mary, Sketches of the Town of Strathavon and Parish of Avondale: Historical & Traditional, John Menzies: Edinburgh 1880.

Links:

  1. Strathaven Past & Present

Acknowledgements:  Considerable thanks must be given to Robert Currie, BA Hons, who sent us additional information enabling a more informative and accurate site profile for this holy well.  Thanks Bob! Also huge thanks again to Aisha Domleo, Lara Domleo, Unabel Gordon and their frobbling Leonidus!

© Paul BennettThe Northern Antiquarian

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Lady Well, Glasgow, Lanarkshire

Holy Well:  OS Grid Reference – NS 60376 65323

Also Known as:

  1. Canmore ID 45037

Getting Here

Lady Well on 1865 OS-map

Lady Well on 1865 OS-map

Get yourself to Glasgow Cathedral—wherein you’ll find St. Mungo’s Well—and walk down John Know Street.  A coupla hundred yards down, across the road is a small street called Ladywell Lane (there’s no signpost for it though), running below the cemetery and leading to the back entrance of the giant Tennent’s Brewery.  At the bottom of this, up against the wall on your left, is the Lady Well.

Archaeology & History

The origins and early traditional history of this once famous sacred well are sadly lost due to the intrusion of industrialism.  It was obviously a place of some considerable repute and lent its name to local quarries and fields hereby.  Used extensively by local people for countless centuries, things were to change in 1715 when the waters of this and other wells were to be kept clean by one John Black, “at a salary of 400 merks yearly.”  The Glasgow historian Eyre-Todd (1934) told that,

“Black was to furnish them with chains, buckets, sheaves, ladles, and other necessary graith, aswell 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.”

Lady Well in 2015

Lady Well in 2015

Lady Well in 1883

Lady Well in 1883

That’s a helluva lot of money in those days!  Even when M’Ure (1736) described it, only in passing, he had nothing to say about its curative properties or local rites.  Once the Industrialists take control, the ways of local people are sanitized, sterilized and ‘progress’ outlaws tradition.  The only reference to an earlier sacrality is in Mr Russel’s (1883) article, where he said simply, that the Lady Well was “so called after a fountain at the bottom of the Craigs…sacred in Popish times to the Virgin.”

The construction that we see today—of the well in its little enclave—was first built in 1835-6.  The waters became polluted after they were redirected below the Necropolis and have not been used since (although they still flow out of the wall a couple of yards to the right, stinking!).  The architectural feature was cleaned up and restored by the local brewery in 1983.

The site may have gained its name from one Lady Lochow, who lived nearby and built a hospital at the old Gorbels in the 14th century—but we might never know the real truth about the origin of its dedication.  However, an intriguing ingredient relating to the dedication of the Lady Well is the incidence of a St. Anne’s Street that used to exist immediately to the east, as seen on the 1865 OS-map above.  St. Anne may well be the mythic character behind the naming of this Lady Well, although I can find no literature to prove this.  In the christian mythos, St. Anne was a very important character indeed: the mother of the Virgin Mary no less!  However, as hagiographers from Attwater (1965), to Baring-Gould (1898) and Butler (1866) all tell, her biography is piecemeal—which is most surprising considering she was JC’s granny!  Anne’s festival date was July 26 (a couple of days after Sirius enters the northern hemisphere); she was the patron saint of midwives, grandmothers and also miners, who invoked her as the deity who produced gold and silverakin to the Earth Mother Herself!  It’s obvious that Anne’s original mythic nature was subdued, as she represented an archaic root of matriarchal triplicity of the Virgin, the Lady and Old Woman and not the patriarchal triplicity of the incoming christian cult.  The christian mythos at this Lady Well (as elsewhere) replaced one facet of the indigenous prima mater in Glasgow, known as the Cailleach—as shown in her attributes of midwife, grandmother and the deep Earth.  If local historians can find field-names or wells dedicated to the Maiden, the Lady and the Carlin (or their variant titles) nearby, the lost layers of archaic Glasgow’s indigenous animistic folk memories could be mapped out once again…

References:

  1. Attwater, Donald, The Penguin Dictionary of Saints, Penguin: Harmondsworth 1965.
  2. Baring-Gould, S., The Lives of the Saints – volume 8, J.C. Nimmo: London 1898.
  3. Bennett, Paul, Ancient and Holy Wells of Glasgow, TNA 2017.
  4. Brotchie, T.C.F., “Holy Wells in and Around Glasgow,” in Old Glasgow Club Transactions, volume 4, 1920.
  5. Butler, Alba, The Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs and other Principal Saints – volume 7, James Duffy: Dublin 1866.
  6. Eyre-Todd, George, History of Glasgow – volume 3, Jackson: Glasgow 1934.
  7. Greene, E.A., Saints and their Symbols, Sampson Low: London 1897.
  8. MacIntosh, Hugh, The Origin and History of Glasgow Streets, James Hedderwick: Glasgow 1902.
  9. M’Ure, John, History of Glasgow, D. MacVean: Glasgow 1736.
  10. Walker, J. Russel, “‘Holy Wells’ in Scotland,” in Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, vol.17 (New Series, volume 5), 1883.

© Paul BennettThe Northern Antiquarian

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