<< Our Photo Pages >> Cloutie Well - Holy Well or Sacred Spring in Scotland in Highlands

Submitted by livingstone on Monday, 31 January 2022  Page Views: 17493

Springs and Holy WellsSite Name: Cloutie Well Alternative Name: St Curitan's Well
Country: Scotland
NOTE: This site is 2.187 km away from the location you searched for.
County: Highlands Type: Holy Well or Sacred Spring
 Nearest Village: Munlochy
Map Ref: NH641537  Landranger Map Number: 26
Latitude: 57.552911N  Longitude: 4.272742W
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
 3 Ambience:
5Superb
4Good
3Ordinary
2Not Good
1Awful
0No data.
 3 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.
 4 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
 3

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I have visited· I would like to visit

PrincessOfAvalon visited on 21st Sep 2017 - their rating: Cond: 3 Amb: 2 Access: 4 The well is positioned near the top of a high ridge which is unusual, so I could see why Otis special. Take the path from the north side of the car park, and go left at the first Y. The spring was not running when I visited. A lot of the clooties that were left are unfortunately of synthetic material and will not degrade as they are intended to. As a result the area looks a bit trashy. The name of the site as indicated n the road sign is "Clootie Well".

LenGilbert visited on 30th Jul 2015 - their rating: Cond: 3 Amb: 5 Access: 5 Very easy to visit, well signed from the roadway. There is a parking area and several paths. I recommend going left and coming into the well counterclockwise. There is a wide range of cloth tied to the trees and if you are attentive, they can tell a bit of a story. There are also coins in the area where the well spills over. I was there with only a couple who didn't stay long, so I was able to enjoy the well.

livingstone visited on 8th Jan 2011 - their rating: Cond: 4 Amb: 5 Access: 3 As Cloutie wells go this one is superb. Easily seen from the roadside it is a major tourist attraction. Sadly some people ignore advice to NOT leave nylon or other non-degradable materials and so the site has become a bit of an eyesore. It is though a fascinating place to visit and has a definate ambience. The spring runs into a cistern and away under the road. Getting close to the wellhead would be extremly difficult for disabled persons.



Average ratings for this site from all visit loggers: Condition: 3.33 Ambience: 4 Access: 4

Cloutie Well
Cloutie Well submitted by LenGilbert : Munlochy Clootie Well. This site is very interesting. I enjoyed trying to figure out the story associated with some of the cloth items that were tied to the trees. Most are just cloth strips, but some have writing or other things that give you some additional idea of why it's there. (Vote or comment on this photo)
As Cloutie wells go this one is (was) superb. Easily seen from the roadside it is something of a tourist attraction. Sadly some people ignore advice to not leave nylon or other non-degradable materials and so the site had become a bit of an eyesore. It is though a fascinating place to visit and has a definite ambience. The spring runs into a cistern and away under the road.

Getting close to the wellhead would be extremely difficult for disabled persons.

PrincessOfAvalon visited on 21st Sep 2017: Condition: 3 Ambience: 2 Access: 4 The well is positioned near the top of a high ridge which is unusual, so I could see why Otis special. Take the path from the north side of the car park, and go left at the first Y. The spring was not running when I visited. A lot of the clooties that were left are unfortunately of synthetic material and will not degrade as they are intended to. As a result the area looks a bit trashy. The name of the site as indicated on the road sign is "Clootie Well".

LenGilbert visited on 30th Jul 2015: Condition: 3 Ambience: 5 Access: 5 Very easy to visit, well signed from the roadway. There is a parking area and several paths. I recommend going left and coming into the well counterclockwise. There is a wide range of cloth tied to the trees and if you are attentive, they can tell a bit of a story. There are also coins in the area where the well spills over. I was there with only a couple who didn't stay long, so I was able to enjoy the well.

Page originally by Vicky

Note: Local uproar as this this ancient Black Isle site has recently been cleaned up by a mystery person, although others accept it was a bit of a mess! We hope that better management will come out of this. More in the comments on our page
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Cloutie Well
Cloutie Well submitted by KiwiBetsy : The Cloutie Well was once better known as St Curitan's Well and was revered for its healing powers especially if the waters were taken at Beltane (1st May). The old stone trough, which is filled by a slow trickle of water from a metal pipe coming out of the bank, is easy to locate on the roadside of the A832 between Tore and the turnoff to Munlochy. Sadly, the cloutie thing seems to have... (1 comment - Vote or comment on this photo)

Cloutie Well
Cloutie Well submitted by PrincessOfAvalon : The spring is to the left of the rags. (Vote or comment on this photo)

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Nearby Images from Geograph Britain and Ireland:
NH6453 : Clootie Well, The Black Isle by F Leask
by F Leask
©2007(licence)
NH6453 : Approaching Munlochy on A832 by Dave Thompson
by Dave Thompson
©2022(licence)
NH6453 : Entrance to the Clootie Well by Stuart Logan
by Stuart Logan
©2011(licence)
NH6453 : By the Clootie Well, Munlochy by Julian Paren
by Julian Paren
©2021(licence)
NH6453 : Cloots at Clootie Well by Julian Paren
by Julian Paren
©2021(licence)

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"Cloutie Well" | Login/Create an Account | 28 News and Comments
  
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Re: Cloutie Well by Anonymous on Tuesday, 01 February 2022
If the rags were organic these would slowly deteriorate. Man-made material should not be used.
[ Reply to This ]

‘It’s upset a lot of people’: outrage after tidy-up of Scottish sacred well by Andy B on Monday, 31 January 2022
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Plans for community to care for ‘clootie’ well after offerings cleared away by well-meaning stranger

At the end of a steep woodland trail, surrounded by sturdy beech and ash trees, a freshwater spring bubbles into a basic stone well, rippling in the low winter sunlight.

On nearby branches and around the mouth of the well colourful cloth rags – or cloots – have been hung by visitors, as an offering to a water spirit or local saint and an entreaty to be healed.

The clootie well near Munlochy, a village on the Black Isle peninsula across the Beauly Firth from Inverness, is a place of traditional pilgrimage and modern curiosity. It is also now a cause of community consternation, after a well-meaning stranger cleared away many of the offerings.

“I’m sure the person who cleared up thought they were doing something good,” says Claire Mackay, a herbalist who lives on the Black Isle, “but the fact they took it upon themselves, weren’t a local and did it without the permission of Forestry and Land Scotland [which manages the site] has upset a lot of people.”

More at
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/jan/30/upset-a-lot-of-people-outrage-tidy-up-of-scottish-sacred-well-clootie-offerings
[ Reply to This ]
    Re: ‘It’s upset a lot of people’: outrage after tidy-up of Scottish sacred well by Andy B on Monday, 31 January 2022
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    Some more local responses to this:
    A mystery clean-up of a famous Black Isle woodland site reputed to have healing powers has sparked a massive debate.

    A storm of protest on social media greeted news that ‘cloots’ had been removed from The Clootie Well in Munlochy with some warning a curse would be invoked and others decrying desecration of local heritage. Believers thought that as the cloth faded, so would the illness suffered by a loved one.

    Others say the site has become an eyesore with non-biodegradable items – including shoes, face masks, plastic bags and even false limbs – going against ancient tradition.

    Our readers' poll result: Should it have been cleaned up?

    Black Isle councillor Gordon Adam said: “Clearing up Clootie Well in this way was unfortunate. It may have been well intentioned, but the right way to go about it is to involve the local community which has done partial – and more sensitive – clear-ups in the past.

    More at
    https://www.ross-shirejournal.co.uk/news/clootie-well-clean-up-continues-to-divide-opinion-on-black-i-264472/
    [ Reply to This ]
    Call for calm and constructive discussion as anger over Clootie Well clean-up by Andy B on Monday, 31 January 2022
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    Amid a social media storm of protest over the mystery clean-up of an ancient Black Isle site believed to be endowed with healing powers, have come calls for calm.

    An online poll run by the Ross-shire Journal, sister paper to the Northern Times, in the aftermath of the removal of items left by visitors to the Clootie Well at Munlochy has found 80 per cent unhappy over the clearance with just 18 per cent declaring a clean-up was needed.

    The extent of the unplanned clearance of cloots – and much else besides – by a mystery woman shocked some and angered others, some who had made the trip to the site in the hope of healing for loved ones.

    It is a treasured childhood memory for many others.
    More at
    https://www.northern-times.co.uk/news/friends-of-clootie-well-group-set-up-amid-call-for-calm-afte-264382/
    [ Reply to This ]
      Re: Call for calm and constructive discussion as anger over Clootie Well clean-up by Runemage on Tuesday, 01 February 2022
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      I'd have liked to see comments from local people but none are attached to the articles. As for it being "a mystery woman" who carried this out, she must have had at the very least a large trailer to take away all of the items she removed from the site and somewhere to dispose of them. It was not a quick 10 minute job done with a pair of scissors and a couple of carrier bags.

      There are ways to "tidy" any site but for someone or a group of someones to take it upon themselves to carry out this cowardly action, deliberately causing desecration of everything there including peoples' beliefs isn't the best way to go about it.

      The local community have now come up with a plan to have a much more environmentally friendly practise of hanging clooties at the site which is to be commended, and hopefully their plans will be embraced at every site where clooties are left.

      [ Reply to This ]

Re: Cloutie Well by Anonymous on Sunday, 22 April 2012
We have visited Cloutie Well on our way to Cromatry and really were quite puzzled as to why rags should be draped on the trees. Obiously we have now had an insight into this rather odd custom. I wouldn't say it was worth a visit as the car park is minimal and the areas surrounding this is not really very inviting. However the explanation for this is enlightening and I wondered if this practice is carried on in other areas of Scotland. We travel to Scotland many times each year but this is the first time we have encountered this.
[ Reply to This ]

Re: Cloutie Well by Anonymous on Wednesday, 25 January 2012
visited the tree about eight years ago ,, sent friends to look at it who were visiting inverness ,as they thought id made the story up ,,my mum put a rag in the well wiped her sore head and hung the rag in the tree ,, the place was realy strange ,,
[ Reply to This ]

Re: Cloutie Well by livingstone on Saturday, 26 February 2011
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As cloutie wells go this one is superb. A major tourist attraction which means it is invariably busy during the summer months.
Sadly a few visitors choose to ignore the signs which clearly ask people not to leave non-degradable clouties. Clearly visible from the road, but access is difficult for disabled or elderly.
You may have to fight with large coaches of tourists for space in the car park. Open all year, best time to visit October to March With the number of feet passing around the mound each year I fear for the integrity of the spring
[ Reply to This ]
    Re: Cloutie Well by Dallas on Sunday, 27 November 2011
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    I live in this area and would not call the site a major tourist attraction, neither is there a problem with parking as only rarely does a tourist bus stop there. The buses mostly head for Chanonry Point in Fortrose to see the wild dolphins. Any time of year is a good time to visit.
    [ Reply to This ]

Re: Cloutie Well by golux on Sunday, 28 March 2010
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Visitors should be aware that this site is well minging! Imagine a fly-tippers dumping ground which extends up into the trees with rags, shoes, plastic bags and other indestructible detritus. It is an example of a genuine old tradition but it is also an unhygienic eyesore.
[ Reply to This ]

Re: Cloutie Well by Anonymous on Sunday, 18 January 2009
That's one strange place
[ Reply to This ]

Re: Cloutie Well by Anonymous on Sunday, 06 July 2008
Condition: 4
Ambience: 4
Access: 4
Accuracy: 4
[ Reply to This ]

Re: Cloutie Well by Anonymous on Wednesday, 02 January 2008
Cloutie Well now has an offroad carpark, information board and nice woodland walks laid out for the enjoyment of visitors
[ Reply to This ]

Re: Cloutie Well by Anonymous on Thursday, 25 October 2007
I went earlier this week to the Cloutie Well and someone's even hung a bike in one of the trees!
[ Reply to This ]

Re: Cloutie Well by Anonymous on Saturday, 01 September 2007
An update from August 2007. Having lived in the area for some years I assumed that the site consisted only of what can be seen from the road. However, on this visit, 30 years later, I found that there is much more to be seen by parking the car in the parking place a few meters away and following the path up the slope to the point where the water emerges from the gound. May people have left a lot more of a garment than a "clout"
[ Reply to This ]

Re: Cloutie Well by Anonymous on Sunday, 24 June 2007
While on holiday I visited Culloden but was unaware of the Clootie Well nearby in Culloden Wood. Hope to see that next time.
[ Reply to This ]

Re: Cloutie Well by Anonymous on Monday, 01 January 2007
An interesting spot to stop at but probably not worth a special trip. Yes there is a road-side, gravel car park but the it is mostly in a natural state.

The rags (clouties) left on the branches (prayer offerings) are recent and rather sad.
[ Reply to This ]

Re: Cloutie Well by Anonymous on Sunday, 19 February 2006
just returned from a visit to Inverness and stopped at the Cloutie Well.My husband is from Inverness and remembers bus trips being run to this site in the 1950s.
You are meant to tie a piece of clothing onto the tree,and as this disintegrates/degrades any illness you have will disappear.But if you take anything from the tree you will develop any sickness that the person who tied it on had.
Does anyone know of any other place like this or is it unique to the Inverness area?
[ Reply to This ]
    Re: Cloutie Well by Anonymous on Sunday, 21 May 2006
    There is a Cloutie tree at the Samye Ling Tibetan Centre near Eskdalemuir in the Scottish Borders. A notice there says that the practice is both of Celtic and Buddhist traditions. I haven't come across another well, though, and would also be interested if there are others.

    regards

    Sharon
    [ Reply to This ]

Re: Cloutie Well by Anonymous on Wednesday, 02 November 2005
Well worth the trip,Information board in the car park suggests that St Boniface was also Known as Curitan, Boniface being the Romanised version of Curitan. There is another St Boniface's Well at the other end of Britain. Now lost, but marked on old maps of Boniface Down, above Bonchurch, Isle Of Wight. Strange feeling at the cloutie Well, we always leave a cloutie of tissue paper, but the excess of man made fibres draped in trees reminded me of a corner close to our local tip, where plastic bag clouties seem to be the norm. However the urge to leave something must take over the odd visitor and if the blouses shoes and other clothes have meaning then the item is only a symbol of that meaning, and they follow in the steps of our ancesters.
[ Reply to This ]

Re: Cloutie Well by Dallas on Saturday, 27 August 2005
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Do re-visit the Cloutie Well as there is now a proper free carpark, picnic tables and pathway through the woods.
Dallas
[ Reply to This ]

Re: Cloutie Well by Anonymous on Tuesday, 01 February 2005
this is an interesting place, especially as it shares my sir name well nearly lol's
regards
Lawson clout (shropshire photographer.) bbc.co.uk
[ Reply to This ]

Re: Cloutie Well by TimPrevett on Monday, 27 December 2004
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So, is it known as Cloutie Well, as well as St Curitan's Well?


There is no reference to St Boniface on this page apart from your comment!


Thanks, Tim
[ Reply to This ]
    Re: Cloutie Well by KiwiBetsy on Friday, 04 February 2005
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    Yes, it seems to be more commonly called Cloutie Well and occasionally referred to as St Curitan's.

    Clicking on the picture will show a larger image with more text below in which I (incorrectly) say that this used to be better known as St Boniface's Well.

    Sorry to have taken so long to respond.
    [ Reply to This ]
    Re: Cloutie Well by Anonymous on Tuesday, 05 April 2005
    St Boniface (do-gooder) is the Latin name of St Curadan, who founded a monastery in the Rosemarkie area, so both names are right.
    [ Reply to This ]

Re: Cloutie Well by KiwiBetsy on Monday, 27 December 2004
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Whoops! seems that I got the other name of this well wrong, it's actually St Curitan's Well, not St Boniface's which is a little further up the road at Fortrose.
[ Reply to This ]

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