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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 welI," 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 Bauffshire. 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 "Archceological 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 cast 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 or 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
Borough-bridge. 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 Larnmermoors. 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 BanchoryDevenick, 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, Aberdeen..
shire, is a well sacred to him called Tobar-Mhaehar, 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. |
