St. Wallach's Bath, in Strathdeveron, is a cavity in the rock, about three
feet in depth, into which water flows from a spring several yards higher
up, the overflow trickling over the edge into the stream, about four feet
below. Down to the beginning of the present century, large numbers of
weakly children used to be brought to this bath to be strengthened by
immersion in it, and some small article of the child's clothing was hung
on a neighbouring tree. The spring was resorted to for the cure of sore
eyes, and pins were offered to the Saint, being left in a hollow of a
stone beside the well. At the end of May, which was the season for the
visit, the hollow was often full of pins. Sir Arthur Mitchell, describing
the holy well on Innis Maree in a communication to the Scottish Society of
Antiquaries, says, "Near it stands an oak tree, which is studded with
nails. To each of these was originally attached a piece of the clothing of
some patient who had visited the spot. There are hundreds of nails, and
one has still fastened to it a faded ribbon. Two bone buttons and two
buckles we also found nailed to the tree. Countless pennies and
halfpennies are driven edgeways into the wood." A more recent visitor,
surprised at finding what appeared to be a silver coin fixed in the tree,
took the trouble to examine it, and found it spurious.
Coins were more usually, however, thrown into the well, and Mr Patrick
Dudgeon, who in 1870 had the well of St. Querdon, in Troqueer parish,
Kirkcudbrightshire, cleaned out, observes in an article contributed to the
transactions of the Dumfries and Galloway Natural History Society, that
several hundreds of coins were found at the bottom--nearly all being the
smallest copper coins, dating from the reign of Elizabeth to that of
George III., but chiefly Scottish issues of James VI., Charles I., and
Charles II. He mentions also having been told by old residents that they
remembered seeing rags and ribbons hung on the bushes around the well.
Dr Macgeorge, describing St. Thenew's Well, in his "Old Glasgow," states,
"It was shaded by an old tree, which drooped over the well, and which
remained until the end of the last century. On this tree the devotees who
frequented the well were accustomed to nail, as thank-offerings, small
bits of tin-iron--probably manufactured for that purpose by a craftsman in
the neighbourhood--representing the parts of the body supposed to have
been cured by the virtues of the sacred spring, such as eyes, hands, feet,
ears, and others."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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