Sacred Waters Part 1

Water in all its manifestations was regarded as sacred by the Druids and as magical by the peasantry who used it as the panacea for all ills. Every gift from the earth proved that a guardian spirit lived within and should he appeased by offerings. The Celts threw gold and silver into sacred pools. The Roman Church decided that if it could not wean people away from their beliefs they, in turn, would sanctify those wells which were regularly visited and dedicate them to the local saint and declare the water holy. St. Columba is recorded as having blessed over three hundred water sources in the Highlands and Lowlands.

Most churches and holy places are built close to where such wells were in existence. Although the Presbyterians declared the practice of visiting wells idolatrous they could not stamp it out. The General Assembly of the Church of Scotland was outraged when in 1560 it discovered that the kirk of Restalrig was built over the covered well of St.Triduana which had been a place of pilgrimage for over a thousands years, and demanded that it be razed to the ground.

Rivers, lochs, burns, pools and wells all had their devotees who swore that amazing cures for all diseases and protection from harm could be obtained by visiting these places and carrying out the correct actions. Offerings had to be made to ensure success and even in Presbyterian times a variety of objects: stones, bones, beads and coins were sacrificed. In Victorian times hydropathics and spas were built in ares where the water was considered especially curative.

That some of the cures appear today more torturous than the affliction did not seem to worry our ancestors who submitted to them gladly, ensuring that the rites associated with each one were studiously observed. In fact, minerals coming from the depths of the earth did often have properties which were beneficial and, as people observed an invalid getting better this reinforced the belief in the the magical power of the water.