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Wells O’ Wearie

OT: Wells and folklore

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wideford W
wideford Sep 25, 2009 17:46:07
Replying to Branwen

In England the place Cutbrawn is from the Celtic coit bran 'wood of the crows"

Branwen wrote:
I've added the east lothian version of the story I learned to the folklore section beside the Well O Wearie.

I have cuthill as from Cuithail meaning "fold" in the first place name resource I looked up. Being a lowland name may mean it's saxon or brythonic in origin though. I'll look into it. Often a brythonic name would be replaced with a scots or gaelic one which sounded the same, but actually had a completely different meaning, as in the case of Loch Lochy, which gaelophiles give as meaning the loch of splendour, but which folklore gives us our clue to its brythonic meaning, as it has always been known locally as maiden loch.

There's a black well at Culloden, it's other name is the well of the dead, so perhaps the name of the well relating to Cuthilldorie has changed to something more english or more christian over time, and looking at the names of well nearby might be illuminating. Also, wells dry up all the time, so there's no guarantee the well even exists anymore.

B Branwen
Branwen Sep 25, 2009 18:07:53
Replying to wideford

RE the crows wood name. Yeah, similar names being included expands the possibilities, but I'm thinking that you have to set a limit on the parameters of your search to not include any old well with a similar sounding name but obvious different etymology.

So we have black well, goblin well, and dead well to work with.

A lot of black wells were connected with druids, the church seeing black as an evil colour and the druids as evil. Then again, a well of the dead, which is the other name of some black wells, are actually celtic burial shaft wells. Druid wells often became "rude" wells over time, or christianised as "well of the (black) rood". If you start including these possibilities, there is the rood well near east linton as a consideration. I'm not as familiar with landmarks out of the lowlands where I grew up to know offhand if other possibilities are opened by looking at it this way.

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