The peat-fire flame : folk-tales and traditions of the Highlands & Islands

THE PEAT-FIRE FLAME
the natives used to go to this well to be cured of their
ailments. Near the well they gathered water-cress, and
also the herb called " flower of the three mountains," for
medicinal purposes. In this well there was once a sacred
trout.
At Bernera, in Glen Elg, there is another well that
likewise had a trout in it. An old woman, Anne MacRae
to name, used to clean this White Well periodically, and
sprinkle its approaches with gravel from the shore, so as
to keep it pure, and at the same time ensure the wellbeing of
the sacred trout. Anne had a great idea of the trout. But
I was told in Glen Elg recently that the well contains no
trout now, and that is disappeared about thirty-three years
ago with the death of Anne, its custodian.
Among the trees down by the Parish Church of Glen Elg,
there is a sacred well, known by a Gaelic name denoting the
Well of Wine. It is three-cornered, representing the
Trinity, as do so many ancient wells.
The Wells of St. Kilda.
Among the wells and springs of St. Kilda, all of which
deserve to be noted for their excellent water, is Tobar nam
Buaidh, the Well of Virtues. This is the Tou-hir-nimhcuy
of Martin, who writes of it as the finest of " the excellent
fountains or springs " in which St. Kilda abounds. The
water of this well was considered efficacious against all
manner of ailments. Referring to it in 1746, the Rev.
Kenneth MacAulay notes that " the water here was a
sovereign cure for a great variety of distempers, deafness
particularly, and every nervous disease."
The Well of Virtues lies by the shieling in the Great
Glen. On an altar hard by it, the islanders, who came to
drink of it, were wont to leave offerings. So famed are its
waters that for years the more nimble tourists, landing on
St. Kilda from the Hebrides or the Diinara Castle, have
dashed straight over the col between the Mullach Sgar and
the Mullach Geal to drink of them during the few hours
that either of these sister-ships may have been lying at
anchor in Village Bay.
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