The natural spring water that bubbles up from deep underground and through the sand in the cistern of this well has a history mingled with folklore. It has been renowned for its curative properties for centuries and was first named ‘Fons Scotiae’ (Well of Scotland) by the Romans who passed through this area in 1^st century AD. 

The widespread assertion that the water had healing powers meant that Scotlandwell became a significant place of pilgrimage throughout the Medieval period. 

Around 1250, the Trinitarian Friars (aka Red Friars) moved here to establish a hospice, using the healing waters from the holy well for patients in their new hospital of St Mary. It’s said that in the early 14^th century, King Robert the Bruce came here in the hope of a cure for his leprosy and records show that Charles II travelled from his Palace in Dunfermline to take the ‘curative’. Mary Queen of Scots is also known to have visited the well to partake of its exquisite water.

The lovely, ornamental structure which now houses this ancient well is built from local sandstone, put in place and completed in 1858 by mason, Thomas Hay, and the wooden canopy constructed by joiner, Alexander Kelloch of Lindores.  The reconstruction of the well, building of an adjacent wash house and drying green was benefacted to the local community by landowner, Thomas Bruce of Arnot and his wife Henrietta Dorin, at a cost of £154. Quite a tidy sum at the time. 

I stop by here often to sit in the peacefulness of this place, drink the water and listen to the cascading of the water as it streams out of the well spout….if it’s not drowned out by the squawking of hundreds of crows that live in nearby sycamore trees.