SAINTS AND SPRINGS.
Columba's Miracle--His Wells--Deer--Drostan's
Springs--His Relics--His Fairs--His Connection with
Caithness--Urquhart--Adamnan--His Wells--Tom Eunan--Feil
Columcille--Adamnan's Visit to Northumbria--His Church
Dedications--Kieran--His Cave--Campbeltown--Book of
the Gospels--Kieran's Church at Errigall-keroge--His
Wells--Bridget--Her Legend--Bridewell--Bridget's
Wells--Abernethy--Torranain--Ninian--His Influence--His
Cave--Candida Casa--Ninian and Martin--Ninian's
Springs--St. Martin's Well--Martinmas--Martin of Bullion's
Day--Bullion Well--Kentigern--Fergus--Arbores Sancti
Kentigerni--His Wells--Thanet Well--St. Enoch's Well--Cuthbert--His
Wells and Bath--His Career--Palladius--His Miracle--Paldy's
Well and Paldy's Fair--His Chapel--Ternan--His Wells--Church
of Arbuthnot--Brendan--Bute--Kilbrandon Sound--Well at
Barra--Boyndie and Cullen--Machar--His Cathedral and
Well--Tobar-Mhachar--Constantine--Govan--Kilchouslan
Church--St. Cowstan's Well--Serf--Area of his Influence.
The annals of hagiology are full of the connection between saints and
springs. On one occasion a child was brought to Columba for baptism,
but there was no water at hand for the performance of the rite. The
saint knelt in prayer opposite a neighbouring rock, and rising,
blessed the face of the rock. Water immediately gushed forth, and with
it the child was baptised. Adamnan, who tells the story, says that
the child was Lugucencalad, whose parents were from Artdaib-muirchol
(Ardnamurchan), where there is seen even to this day a well called by
the name of St. Columba. There are many wells in Scotland named after
him. As might be expected, one of these is in Iona. Almost all are
along the west coast and in the Hebrides. The name of Kirkcolm, in
Wigtownshire, signifies the Church of Columba. The parish contains
a fountain dedicated to him, known as Corswell or Crosswell,
from which the castle headland and lighthouse of Corsewall have
derived their name. A certain amount of sanctity still clings to the
fountain. Macaulay, in his "History of St. Kilda" published in 1764,
describes a spring there called by the inhabitants Toberi-Clerich,
the cleric in question being, according to him, Columba. "This well,"
he says, "is below the village, ... and gushes out like a torrent
from the face of a rock. At every full tide the sea overflows it,
but how soon that ebbs away, nothing can be fresher or sweeter than
the water. It was natural enough for the St. Kildians to imagine
that so extraordinary a phenomenon must have been the effect of some
supernatural cause, and one of their teachers would have probably
assured them that Columba, the great saint of their island and
a mighty worker of miracles, had destroyed the influence which,
according to the established laws of nature, the sea should have had
on that water." This spring resembles one in the parish of Tain, in
Ross-shire, known as St. Mary's Well. The latter is covered several
hours each day by the sea, but when the tide retires its fresh,
sweet water gushes forth again.
According to an old tradition, Drostan, a nephew of Columba,
accompanied the latter when on a journey from Iona to Deer in
Buchan, about the year 580, and was the first abbot of the monastery
established there. The name of the place, according to the "Book
of Deer," was derived from the tears (in Gaelic, der or deur, a
tear), shed by Drostan on the departure of his uncle. In reality,
the name comes from the Gaelic dair, signifying an oak. There are
five springs dedicated to Drostan. They are all in the east country,
between Edzell and New Aberdour. At the latter place his relics were
preserved, and miracles of healing were wrought at his tomb. The
spring near Invermark Castle is popularly known as Droustie's Well. A
market, called St. Drostan's Fair, is still held annually at Old
Deer in December. Insch, in Aberdeenshire, has also a St. Drostan's
Fair. Drostan was reverenced in Caithness, where he was tutelar saint
of the parishes of Halkirk and Canisbay. In "The Early Scottish Church"
the Rev. Dr. M'Lauchlan mentions that Urquhart in Inverness-shire,
was called Urchudain, Maith Dhrostan, i.e., St. Drostan's Urquhart.
Adamnan, Columba's biographer, became abbot of Iona in 679, and
died there in 704. There are wells to him at Dull, in Perthshire,
and at Forglen in Banffshire. His name occurs in Scottish
topography, but shortened, and under various disguises. In the
form of St. Oyne he has a well in Rathen parish, Aberdeenshire,
where there is a mound--probably an ancient fortified site--also
called St. Oyne's. About six miles north-east of Kingussie, in
Inverness-shire, is the church of the quoad sacra parish of Inch,
on a knoll projecting into the loch of the same name. The knoll is
called Tom Eunan, i.e., the hill of Adamnan, to whom the church
was dedicated. Within the building is still to be seen a fine
specimen of the four-cornered bronze bell used in the early Celtic
church. According to a local tradition it was once carried off, but
kept calling out, "Tom Eunan! Tom Eunan!" till brought back to its
home. We find that Adamnan and Columba were associated together in
the district. An annual gathering, at one time held there in honour
of the latter, was named Feil Columcille, i.e., Columba's Fair, and
was much resorted to. Women usually appeared on the occasion in white
dresses in token of baptism. An old woman, who died in 1882, at the age
of ninety, was in the habit of showing the white dress worn by her in
her young days at the fair. It finally served her as a shroud. Adamnan
visited the Northumbrian court when Egfrid was king. His errand was
one of peace-making; for he went to procure the release of certain
Irish captives who had been made prisoners by Egfrid, During his stay
in Northumbria he became a convert to the Roman view as against the
Celtic in the two burning questions of that age, viz., the time for
holding Easter, and the nature of the tonsure. Though he did not get
his friends in Scotland to see eye to eye with him on these points,
he seems to have been generally popular north of the Tweed. Eight
churches at least were dedicated to him, mainly in the east country
between Forvie, in Aberdeenshire, and Dalmeny, in West Lothian. One of
these dedications was at Aboyne. Skeulan Well there contains Adamnan's
name in a corrupted form.
Kieran, belonging like Columba to the sixth century, was also like
him from Ireland. He selected a cave some four miles from Campbeltown
as his dwelling-place, and there led the life of an ascetic. He
died in 543 in his thirty-fourth year. Pennant thus describes
the cave:--"It is in the form of a cross, with three fine Gothic
porticoes for entrances, ... had formerly a wall at the entrance,
a second about the middle, and a third far up, forming different
apartments. On the floor is the capital of a cross and a round basin
cut out of the rock, full of fine water, the beverage of the saint
in old times, and of sailors in the present, who often land to dress
their victuals beneath this shelter." This basin is more minutely
described by Captain T. P. White in his "Archæological Sketches in
Scotland." He says, "There is a small basin, nearly oval in shape,
neatly scooped out of a block, two feet long by one and a half wide,
which exactly underlies a drip of water from the roof of the cave. The
water supply is said never to have failed and always to keep the little
basin full. Tradition calls it the saint's font or holy well." Kieran
is commemorated in Kinloch-Kilkerran, the ancient name of the parish of
Campbeltown. The word means literally the head of the loch of Kieran's
cell. On one occasion Kieran dropped his book of the Gospels into a
lake. Sometime after it was recovered in an uninjured state through
the instrumentality of a cow. The cow went into the water to cool
itself, and brought out the volume attached to its hoof. Another bovine
association is connected with the building of St. Kieran's Church on a
hill at Errigall-keroge, in County Tyrone, Ireland. The saint had an ox
which, during the day, drew the materials for the building, and in the
evening was slaughtered to feed the workmen. The bones were thrown each
evening into a well at the foot of the hill, and, morning by morning,
the accommodating animal appeared ready for the day's work. The well
is still held to be miraculous. There is a spring dedicated to Kieran
at Drumlithie, in Glenbervie parish, Kincardineshire, and another
at Stonehaven, in the same county. There is one in Troqueer parish,
Kirkcudbrightshire, locally known as St. Jergon's or St. Querdon's
Well, these names being simply an altered form of Kieran.
Bridget or Bride, an Irish saint, was popular in Scotland. She
received baptism from Patrick, and died in 525 after a life of great
sanctity. She was celebrated as a worker of miracles. She made a cow
supply an enormous quantity of milk to satisfy the wants of three
thirsty bishops who came to visit her. She also cured diseases. On one
occasion two men suffering from leprosy came to her to be healed. She
made the sign of the cross over water, and told them to wash in
it. One of the two did so and was instantly restored to health; but,
refusing to help the other, he at once became leprous again, while
his companion was as suddenly made whole. On another occasion she
used the sign of the cross to stay a company bent on the capture of
a maiden who had sought refuge in the saint's nunnery. Perhaps her
most wonderful miracle was the hanging of her gown on a sunbeam,
a somewhat unusual cloak-peg, and one that, from the nature of the
case, had not to be sought in a dark press. Her principal monastery
was at Kildare, so named after the oak (dair) under whose shade her
cell was built. Adjoining St. Bride's Churchyard in London is a spring
dedicated to the saint, and popularly styled Bride's Well. The palace
built in the immediate neighbourhood went by the name of Bridewell. It
was handed over by Edward VI. to the city of London as a workhouse
and place of correction. At a later date the name became associated
with other houses used for a similar purpose. "Hence it has arisen,"
remarks Chambers in his "Book of Days," "that the pure and innocent
Bridget, the first of Irish nuns, is now inextricably connected in
our ordinary national parlance with a class of beings of the most
opposite description." There are fully a dozen wells in Scotland
bearing her name. These are chiefly to be found in the counties
of Wigtown, Dumfries, Peebles, Lanark, Renfrew, Dumbarton, Perth,
Fife, and Aberdeen. A monastery was founded in Bridget's honour at
Abernethy, in Perthshire, probably in the eighth century, and she
had churches on the mainland and among the Western Islands. A curious
superstition connected with Bridget has survived to the present time,
at least in one of these islands. It has to do with a certain magical
flower styled torranain, that must be plucked during the influx of the
tide, and is of virtue to protect cows from the evil eye, and to make
them give a plentiful supply of milk. The Rev. Dr. Stewart, in his
"'Twixt Ben Nevis and Glencoe," quotes the incantation associated
with it forwarded to him by a correspondent in Uist. The following
is one of the stanzas:--
"Let me pluck thee, Torranain!
With all thy blessedness and all thy virtue.
The nine blessings came with the nine parts.
By the virtue of the Torranain.
The hand of St. Bride with me
I am now to pluck thee."
A saint who could give efficacy to a spell was quite the sort of
person to be entrusted with the custody of springs.
Ninian, popularly called Ringan, devoted his life mainly to missionary
work among the Picts of Galloway, although he extended his influence as
far north as the Tay. He seems to have been honoured in Aberdeenshire,
if we may judge by a fresco, representing him, discovered about
thirty years ago in the pre-Reformation Church of Turriff, and
regard was had for him as far north as the Shetland Isles. Even the
Scot abroad did not forget him. Chalmers, in his "Caledonia," says
that, "in the church of the Carmelite Friars of Bruges in Flanders,
the Scottish nation founded an altar to St. Ninian, and endowed a
chaplain who officiated at it." A cave by the sea in the parish of
Glasserton, in Wigtownshire, was his favourite retreat. This cave was
explored about ten years ago, and several stones, marked with incised
crosses, were discovered. Ninian brought masons from France, and at
Whithorn built Candida Casa--the first stone church in Scotland. It
was in course of construction in the year 397. Ninian then heard of
the death of Martin of Tours, and to the latter the new church was
dedicated. These two saints are found side by side in the matter of
church dedications. Thus, Martin was patron of Ulbster, in Caithness:
not far off was a church to Ninian. Strathmartin, in Forfarshire, was
united in 1799 to the parish of Mains, the latter claiming Ninian as
its tutelar saint. Sinavey Spring, in Mains parish, near the site of
the ancient Castle of Fintry, is believed to represent St. Ninian's
name in a corrupted form. His springs are numerous, and have a wide
range from the counties of Wigtown and Kirkcudbright to those of Forfar
and Kincardine. There is a well to him near Dunnottar Castle, in the
last-mentioned county. In the island of Sanda, off the Kintyre coast,
is a spring named after him. It had a considerable local celebrity in
former times. St. Ninian's Well in Stirling is a familiar spot in the
district. There is a well sacred to Martin in the Aberdeenshire parish
of Cairnie. Martinmas (November 11th) came long ago into our land as
a church festival. It still remains with us as a familiar term-day.
An incident in Martin's biography has a bearing on our subject, through
the connection between the name of the festival commemorating it and
certain of our place-names. In Scotland, the fourth of July used to
be known as Martin of Bullion's Day, in honour of the translation of
the saint's body to a shrine in the cathedral of Tours. There is some
uncertainty about the origin of the term Bullion, though, according
to the likeliest etymology, it is derived from the French bouiller,
to boil, in allusion to the heat of the weather at that time of the
year. There is an old proverb that if the deer rise up dry and lie down
dry on Martin of Bullion's Day, there will be a good gose-harvest,
i.e., an early and plentiful one. An annual fair was appointed to
be held at Selkirk and in Dyce parish, Aberdeenshire, in connection
with the festival. There are traces of both Martin and Bullion in
Scottish topography. In Perthshire there is the parish of St. Martin's,
containing the estate of St. Martin's Abbey. Some miles to the east
is Strathmartin in Forfarshire, already alluded to, and not far from
it in the same county we find Bullionfield in the parish of Liff and
Benvie. It is probable that these names are in some way connected
together. In Ecclesmachan parish in Linlithgowshire, there is, as far
as we know, no trace of Martin in any dedication of chapel or spring;
but Bullion is represented. There is a spring of this name issuing
from the trap rocks of the Tor Hill. It is a mineral well. The water
is slightly impregnated with sulphuretted hydrogen. In former times
it was much resorted to by health-seekers, but it is now neglected.
Ninian consecrated a graveyard beside the Molendinar at Cathures, now
Glasgow. About a hundred years later Kentigern, otherwise Mungo, bishop
of the Strathclyde kingdom, brought to this cemetery from Carnock the
body of Fergus, an anchorite, on a cart drawn by two wild bulls. Over
the spot where Fergus was buried was built, at a later date, the crypt
of what was to have been the south transept of the cathedral, had that
portion of the structure ever been reared. The crypt is now popularly
called Blackadder's Aisle, though, as Dr. Andrew MacGeorge points
out in his "Old Glasgow," it ought to be called Fergus' Isle. It was
so named in a minute of the kirk-session in 1648, and an inscription
in long Gothic letters on a stone in the roof of the aisle tells the
same tale. Kentigern took up his abode on the banks of the Molendinar,
and gathered round him a company of monks, each dwelling in a separate
hut. In the twelfth century the spot was surrounded by a dense forest,
and in 1500 the "Arbores sancti Kentigerni" were landmarks in the
district. Kentigern's Well, now in the lower church of the cathedral,
must, from the very fact of its inclusion within the building, have
been deemed sacred before the cathedral was reared. Other examples of
wells within churches are on record, though not in Scotland. There is a
spring in St. Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin. The cathedrals of Carlisle,
Winchester, and Canterbury, and the minsters of York and Beverley,
as well as one of two English parish churches, either now have or
once had wells within their walls. The Rev. T. F. Thiselton Dyer
gives several examples in his "Church Lore Gleanings," and remarks,
"Such wells may have been of special service in Border churches,
which, like the cathedral of Carlisle, served as places of refuge
for the inhabitants in case of sudden alarm or foray."
Besides his well in the cathedral, Kentigern had another dedicated to
him at Glasgow, close to Little St. Mungo's Church, in the immediate
neighbourhood of the trees already mentioned. There are fully a dozen
wells sacred to him north of the Tweed. As might be expected, these are
almost all to be found in the counties south of the Forth and Clyde,
and particularly in those to the west of that district. There is one
in Kincardineshire, at Kinneff, locally known as Kenty's Well. Under
the name of St. Mongah's Well there is a spring dedicated to him
in Yorkshire at Copgrove Park four miles from Boroughbridge. A
bath close by, supplied with water from this spring, was formerly
much frequented by invalids of all ages, who remained immersed for
a longer or shorter time in its intensely cold water. Other wells
to Kentigern are to be met with in the north of England. The parish
of Crossthwaite in Cumberland has its church dedicated to him. The
spot was the thwaite or clearing in the wood where he set up his
cross. Thanet Well, in Greystoke parish in the same county, is believed
to have derived its name from Tanew or Thenew, Kentigern's mother,
familiar to the citizens of Glasgow as St. Enoch. St. Enoch's Well,
close to St. Enoch's Square in that burgh, used to be a favourite
resort of health-seekers. It has now no existence.
Cuthbert, besides a well at St. Boswell's, in Roxburghshire, had a bath
in Strath Tay, a rock-hewn hollow full of water where he periodically
passed several hours in devotion. This famous Northumbrian missionary
was born about 635, and spent his early boyhood as a shepherd on the
southern slopes of the Lammermoors. He lived for thirteen years as a
monk in the monastery of Old Melrose, situated two miles east from the
present Melrose on a piece of land almost surrounded by the Tweed. On
the death of Boisil, Cuthbert was appointed prior. He afterwards
became bishop of Lindisfarne. During his stay at Melrose he visited
the land of the Niduarian Picts, in other words the Picts of Galloway,
and left a record of his journey in the name of Kirkcudbright, i.e.,
the Church of Cuthbert. Various other churches were dedicated to him
in the south of Scotland and in the north of England. A well-known
Edinburgh parish bears his name. He was honoured as far south as
Cornwall. St. Cuby's Well, locally called St. Kilby's, between Duloe
and Sandplace in that county is believed to have been dedicated to him.
There is a good deal of uncertainty about the history of Palladius. He
is believed to have been a missionary from Rome to the Irish in the
fifth century, and to have suffered martyrdom for the faith. It is
recorded of him that on one occasion, by removing some turf in the
name of the Holy Spirit, he caused a spring to gush forth to supply
water for baptism. He is popularly associated with Kincardineshire,
though there is reason to believe that he had no personal connection
with the district. A spring in Fordoun parish is locally known as
Paldy's Well, and an annual market goes by the name of Paldy's or
Paddy's Fair. A chapel was dedicated to him there, and received his
relics, brought thither by his disciple Terrananus, whose name is
still preserved in Banchory-Ternan, and who seems to have belonged
to the district. Ternan has a well at Banchory-Devenick, and another
at Kirkton-of-Slains, in Buchan. The old church of Arbuthnot was
dedicated to him. It was for this church that the Missal, Psalter,
and Office of the Virgin, now in the possession of Viscount Arbuthnot,
were written and illuminated towards the end of the fifteenth century,
these being the only complete set of Service-Books of a Scottish
Church that have come down to us from pre-Reformation times.
Brendan of Clonfert in Ireland, visited several of the Western Isles
during the first half of the sixth century, and various churches were
afterwards dedicated to him there. He is connected also with Bute. The
name Brandanes, applied to its inhabitants, came from him, and he bids
fair to be remembered in the name of Kilbrandon Sound, between Arran
and Kintyre. He was patron of a well in the island of Barra and was
tutelar saint of Boyndie and Cullen in Banffshire; but we are not
aware that any well at either of these places was called after him.
A curious legend is related to account for the origin of the See
of Aberdeen. According to it Machar or Macarius, along with twelve
companions, received instructions from Columba to wander over Pictland,
and to build his cathedral-church where he found a river making a
bend like a bishop's staff. Such a bend was found in the Don at Old
Aberdeen. St. Machar's Cathedral, built beside it, keeps alive the
saint's memory. In the neighbouring grounds of Seton is St. Machar's
Well. Though now neglected, it was honoured in former times, and
its water was used at baptisms in the cathedral. Under the name of
Mocumma or Mochonna, Macarius appears as one of the followers of
Columba on his memorable voyage from Ireland to Iona. He is said to
have visited Pope Gregory the Great at Rome, and to have been for a
time bishop of Tours. In Strathdon, Aberdeenshire, is a well sacred
to him called Tobar-Mhachar, pronounced in the district Tobar-Vacher.
Constantine, known also by his other names of Cowstan, Chouslan,
and Cutchou, was a prince of Cornwall in the sixth century, and was
acquainted with Columba and Kentigern. He relinquished his throne
and crossed over to Ireland, where he turned monk. At a later date
he came to the west of Scotland, and founded a monastery at Golvedir,
believed to be Govan, near Glasgow, and, according to Fordun, became
its abbot. Kilchouslan Church, on the north side of Campbeltown Bay,
Kintyre, was built in his honour. In its graveyard there is, or was
till quite lately, a round stone about the size of a grinding stone. In
the centre is a hole large enough to let the hand pass through. There
is a tradition that if a man and woman eloped, and were able to join
hands through this hole before being overtaken by their kinsfolk they
were free from further pursuit. In the spring of 1892 an interesting
find of old coins was made in the same graveyard. These consisted of
groats and half-groats, some of English and some of Scottish coinage,
the earliest belonging to the reign of Edward II. of England. According
to Martin, the well of St. Cowstan at Garrabost, in Lewis, was believed
never to boil any kind of meat, though its water was kept over the fire
for a whole day. This well is on a steep slope at the shore. Not far
off once stood St. Cowstan's Chapel, but its site is now under tillage.
Serf or Servanus, who flourished during the latter half of the seventh
century, was connected with the district north of the Firth of Forth,
particularly with Culross, and the island named after him in Loch
Leven, where he founded a monastery. At Dysart, Serf had a cave, and
in it tradition says that he held a discussion with the devil. The
name of Dysart indeed, comes from this desertum or retreat. Serf
had a cell at Dunning, in Strathearn, where he died in the odour
of sanctity. He had also some link with the parish of Monzievaird,
where the church was dedicated to him, and where a small loch still
goes by the name of St. Serf's Water. There is a well sacred to him at
Alva. St. Shear's Well, at Dumbarton, retains his name in an altered
form. Early last century this spring was put to a practical purpose,
as arrangements were then made to lead its water across the Leven by
pipes to supply the burgh.