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

WELL LORE
patient placed his hand in the pail and touched the stone.
But, alas ! one fine day an old woman tried to cure her goat
in this way ; and, when she replaced the stone in the well, it
no longer whirled, but sank to the bottom. Its virtue had
A'anished; and it has remained motionless ever since.
The Wells of Barra.
Near Loch St. Clair is a well which the natives of Barra
call Tohar Chahiim Chillc, believing it to be the spring
frequented by St. Columba. " And they were saying that
St. Columba left a kind of spell on that well," a native of
Barra informed me some years ago. Generations of East
Coast fishermen have been in the habit of calling this well
St. Clair's Well. In olden times the fishermen of Barra
used to drink of its water on Sundays, in the hope of getting
heavy shots of herring during the week; and in pre-
Reformation days, when the Church of St. Barr, at
Eoligarry, was the only place of public worship in the Isle
of Barra, the Islesfolk, sailing over from Vatersay and the
other Barra Isles, used to slake their thirst at this well on
the way to divine service.
Some there are who say that, before proceeding to church,
the women-folk of these Islands were accustomed to tidy
their hair when gazing at their reflections in the clear water
of St. Clair's Well. We may take it that at this time
mirrors were not included among the toilet requisites in
vogue throughout the Barra Isles.
According to an ancient chronicler, " there is one
springand fresh water Well. And the inhabitants and
ancient men and woemen both men and woemen in this
toune (Kilbar, in the north of Barra) and of the Countrie
especiallie one ancient man being of fyve or sexscoir zeares
old doth say that when appearance of Warrs wer to be in the
Countrey of Barray That certaine drops of blood hath
oftymes bein sein in this springand fresh Water Well."
The chronicler emphasises the fact that, in addition to the
testimony of the older inhabitants, he had this information
corroborated by Rory MacNeil, the Chief of Barra at that
time. Rory went a step further in alleging that, indicative
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