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

WELL LORE
monument ; and carved in stone on the four sides is a long
inscription in English, GaeHc, French, and Latin. In this
wise runs the EngHsh inscription : " As a memorial of the
example and summary vengeance which, in the swift course
of feudal justice, inflicted by the order of Lord McDonell
and Aross, overtook the perpetrators of the foul murder of
the Keppoch Family, a branch of the powerful and
illustrious clan of which his lordship was the chief. This
monument is erected by Colonel McDonell of Glengarry,
XVII Mac-Mhic-Alaister, his successor and representative,
in the year of Our Lord 1812. The heads of the Seven
Murderers were presented at the feet of the noble Chief in
Glengarry Castle after having been washed in this spring;
and ever since that event, which took place in the sixteenth
century, it has been known by the name of Tobar-nan-Ceann
or the Well of the Heads."
In my recent book, Someivhere in Scotland, I have given
a lengthy account of the circumstances leading up to, and
culminating in, the washing of the seven heads in the well
by the roadside at Loch Oich; and so I need not repeat
myself here. The best account of which I know, however,
will be found in David MacKay's Clan Warfare in the
Scottish Highlands.
The Springs that made Loch Awe.
From m)^hological times there has been handed down to
us the folk-tale of how Loch Awe came into existence.
According to this tale, that dreaded female demon, the
Cailleach Bheur, whose exploits are recorded in the folk-lore
of several countries, had occasion to pass through the valley
now occupied by Loch Awe, when, as if by evil design, her
foot struck an obstacle. Thus released, it is believed, were
the subterranean springs that now welled up to fill the valley
with a loch.
According to the Ossianic version of this folk-tale, a wise
man, who lay dying, sent for his fair daughter, Bera, and
bequeathed to her as the last of her race all the fertile farmlands
now submerged beneath the waters of Loch Awe.
Only one condition did he attach to the bequest—namely,
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