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<< Text Pages >> Mungo's Well (Carsphairn) - Holy Well or Sacred Spring in Scotland in Dumfries and Galloway

Submitted by Anne T on Friday, 01 July 2022  Page Views: 382

Springs and Holy WellsSite Name: Mungo's Well (Carsphairn) Alternative Name: St Mungo's Well (Carsphairn); Physic Well (Holm Burn)
Country: Scotland
NOTE: This site is 2.281 km away from the location you searched for.

County: Dumfries and Galloway Type: Holy Well or Sacred Spring
Nearest Town: Dalmellington / St John's Town of Dalry  Nearest Village: Carsphairn
Map Ref: NX6492799555
Latitude: 55.271573N  Longitude: 4.12759W
Condition:
5Perfect
4Almost Perfect
3Reasonable but with some damage
2Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site
1Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks
0No data.
-1Completely destroyed
no data Ambience:
5Superb
4Good
3Ordinary
2Not Good
1Awful
0No data.
no data Access:
5Can be driven to, probably with disabled access
4Short walk on a footpath
3Requiring a bit more of a walk
2A long walk
1In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find
0No data.
no data Accuracy:
5co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates
4co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map
3co-ordinates scaled from a bad map
2co-ordinates of the nearest village
1co-ordinates of the nearest town
0no data
4
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Holy Well or Sacred Spring in Dumfries and Galloway

Not recorded on Canmore, but researched by the Can You Dig It: Lost Wells of Galloway (LWoG) project, their researchers, Claire Williamson and David Bartholomew, tell us: "The site of Mungo's Well is located beside the route of Holm Burn, to the west of Upper Holm of Dalquhairn farm. It first appears on the 1st edition Ordnance Curvey 6-inch map of 1853".

They go onto say there is a difference in opinion as to how this well was named: "The Ordnance Survey name book ... describes it as 'A good spring well on the farm of Upper Holm o'Dalquhairn. How it got its name is not known in the locality but Mr Fergusson says that it is probable it received its name from the man who dug it, probably named Mungo'. However, the Place-Names of the Galloway Glens database - see Mungos Well - observes: "On the 1853 map the well is shown beside the Holm Burn. Its outflow joins that burn a short distance from the well. There is no record of it on OS Digimap, though the track of the outflow is still visible on aerial photography (Google Earth). This might have been a holy well with a saintly dedication to St Mungo, but by the mid-nineteenth century this association, if it ever existed, was forgotten ... It lies beside the Holm Burn, which forms the boundary between Upper and Nether Holm of Dalquhairn (Upper to the north, Nether to the south). The detailed Plan of the Lands of Nether Holm (1773) does not show it, perhaps because it is (just) over the boundary, but it does show Physic well on the south side of the burn a short distance downstream."

One of the LWoG researchers made a site visit in 2021, and recorded: "It's in the middle of a fairly flat boggy area of moss and reeds about 20 to 30 metres from the river. A clogged up shallow ditch runs down from the well to the river. In many ways it seems more like a spring than a well. The well itself isn't any wider than the ditch leading out from it, and water was running/trickling into it from the top end of it .... I think the well was 60 to 70 cms deep .... it had a pebbly bottom. The ground around the well is composed of iron-rich peaty soil which caused a reddish brown discolouration of the water when disturbed".

Does anyone have any more information about this well, and how it came to be classified as a possible holy well? Do you know if its waters were used for baptismal or healing and/or restorative purposes? If you have visited this site and have photographs, please would you be able to add them to this site page? Thank you.

The Lost Wells of Galloway project is a community project, "setting out to map and better understand lost wells in Galloway, considering how we relate to these historic features now and how this has changed over time".
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Nearby Images from Geograph Britain and Ireland:
NX6499 : Holm Burn from Mid Hill of Glenhead by Chris Wimbush
by Chris Wimbush
©2006(licence)
NS6400 : Water of Ken valley from Mid Rig by Alan O'Dowd
by Alan O'Dowd
©2015(licence)
NX6599 : Spout Burn above Holm of Dalquhairn by Alan O'Dowd
by Alan O'Dowd
©2015(licence)
NX6499 : Towards Holm Burn by Chris Wimbush
by Chris Wimbush
©2020(licence)
NX6599 : Holm Burn at Dalquhairn by Alan O'Dowd
by Alan O'Dowd
©2015(licence)

The above images may not be of the site on this page, they are loaded from Geograph.
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Nearby sites listing. In the following links * = Image available
 6.0km S 182° Round Craigs* Cairn (NX64519355)
 6.2km WSW 252° Gold Wells (Carsphairn) Holy Well or Sacred Spring (NX5896497793)
 6.7km SSE 168° Stellhead N* Cairn (NX66089297)
 6.7km S 179° Chalybeate Well (Dalry)* Holy Well or Sacred Spring (NX6488792815)
 6.8km S 169° Stellhead S* Cairn (NX66059285)
 7.6km S 188° Stroanfreggan Craig* Hillfort (NX63709206)
 7.8km S 189° Smittons Bridge* Cairn (NX63409188)
 8.2km S 185° Stroanfreggan Cairn* Cairn (NX64019142)
 9.6km W 278° Water of Deugh* Chambered Cairn (NS55420114)
 9.8km W 276° Brownhill Burn* Cairn (NS55210089)
 10.4km WSW 240° Green Well of Scotland (Carsphairn) Holy Well or Sacred Spring (NX5573494565)
 10.9km WSW 239° Holm of Daltallochan Standing Stone* Standing Stone (Menhir) (NX55399420)
 11.0km WSW 239° Holm Of Daltallochan Stone Circle* Stone Circle (NX55289422)
 11.3km ESE 111° St. Conal's Well* Holy Well or Sacred Spring (NX75399508)
 11.4km SW 230° Cairn Avel* Cairn (NX55949245)
 11.6km SW 222° Bardennoch* Cairn (NX56859120)
 11.7km SW 220° Braidenoch Cross Slabs* Early Christian Sculptured Stone (NX57099081)
 12.1km W 266° Lamford Burn* Cairn (NX52829916)
 13.1km SSW 191° Mackilston N* Cairn (NX61968682)
 13.1km SSW 191° Mackilston S* Cairn (NX61968678)
 14.0km SSW 204° Stroangassel Stone Circle (NX589869)
 14.1km W 273° Cairnennock Cairn (NS50800078)
 14.7km SSE 147° Hole Stone (Blackmark)* Standing Stone (Menhir) (NX72568698)
 14.8km SW 214° Physic Well (Kells) Holy Well or Sacred Spring (NX5622587525)
 15.1km NW 312° Nith Lodge Stone Circle (NS540100)
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