Ben Newe

Nearest town:
Ballater (18km S)
OS reference:
NJ381143
OS sheet:
37
Latitude:
57° 12' 55.09 N
Longitude:
3° 1' 30.05 W
Added to TMA by

Images

Image of Ben Newe (Sacred Well) by drewbhoy

A nice sunny day, a biting wind from the Cairngorms, when calm it was warm.

Image credit: drew/AMJ
drewbhoy
drewbhoy Apr 14, 2021
Image of Ben Newe (Sacred Well) by drewbhoy

You’d think the stone in front was to help people look into the well.

Image credit: drew/AMJ
drewbhoy
drewbhoy Apr 14, 2021
Image of Ben Newe (Sacred Well) by drewbhoy

A little snow on top, part of climb included knee deep snow.

Image credit: drew/AMJ
drewbhoy
drewbhoy Apr 14, 2021
Image of Ben Newe (Sacred Well) by drewbhoy

Looking over the trig to the well covered Cairngorms.

Image credit: drew/AMJ
drewbhoy
drewbhoy Apr 14, 2021
Image of Ben Newe (Sacred Well) by drewbhoy

Spied this guy having a wee rest on top of Ben Newe.

Image credit: drew/AMJ
drewbhoy
drewbhoy Apr 14, 2021

Articles

Ben Newe

drewbhoy
drewbhoy Jul 11, 2021

I parked on the west side of Ben Newe, where two forestry roads meet to get onto the minor road, just to the south of Eastertown.

Heading east I jumped the burn, near the dam, and followed the track as it headed north as it ends it turns into a walkers track and heads east. This section for about a 200 meters was tricky as it was covered knee deep in snow.

Keep going uphill, following a fence and old dry stane dyke until you meet a larger track. Cross this and follow the track to the summit.

Unluckily for me the water in the well was frozen. Stunning views especially to the west where the Cairngorms were covered in snow. When the wind dropped it was warm, when windier it was freezing.

Good to return to Ben Newe via a different route.

Visited 12/04/2021.

Ben Newe

thelonious
thelonious Jul 13, 2013

13/07/2013 – It’s been a while since our last time on Ben Newe. A lovely hill in the heart of Strathdon. Always very quiet. I guess not many folk apart from locals would have heard of it. Small carparks on east and west sides of hill, we started from the east. Good paths through trees lead to the top, very nice at this time of year. Worth the climb just for the view up Glen Buchat.

The well is found on the north side of the summit tor. A few coins could be just made out through the murky water.

Go on a warm summer day with a book or just your thoughts. It’s a place that should not be rushed.

Folklore

Ben Newe
Sacred Well
Rhiannon
Rhiannon Apr 5, 2007

Bad Rhiannon, adding an allegedly ~holy~ well. But this isn’t just any holy well, oh no. This holy well is right on the top of a mountain. Ha! a reckless contributor wouldn’t know whether to add it as a sacred well or a sacred mountain. Is it justifiable. Possibly. Read on.

BEN NEWE WELL.
There is a big rugged rock on the top of Ben Newe in Strathdon, Aberdeenshire. On the north side of this rock, under a projection, there is a small circular-shaped hollow which always contains water. Everyone that goes to the top of the hill must put some small object into it, and then take a draught of water off it. Unless this is done the traveller will not reach in life the foot of the hill. I climbed the hill in June of 1890, and saw in the well several pins, a small bone, a pill-box, a piece of a flower, and a few other objects.*

The RCAHMS record says the OS visited in 1968, and ‘offerings of coins [were] still made’.

From p69 of
Guardian Spirits of Wells and Lochs
W. Gregor
Folklore, Vol. 3, No. 1. (Mar., 1892), pp. 67-73.

*try not to think of it as Victorian geocaching.

The RCAHMS record also mentions WJ Watson’s 1926 ‘History of the Celtic place-names of Scotland’ in which he proposes “The well may be the sacred place (the Celtic ‘nemeton’) preserved in the ‘Newe’ element of Ben Newe”.

Sites within 20km of Ben Newe

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