Fuaran Barain, Acharn, Kenmore, Perthshire

Sacred Well:  OS Grid-Reference – NN 7580 4302

Also Known as:

1. Acharn Well
2. Barane’s Spring

Archaeology & History

I was up here again not long ago and forgot to check on the welfare of the waters here (bad of me, I know…), instead just walking past to have a gander at the impressive stone circle on the tops.  The site has been neglected, perhaps due to William Gilllies’ (1925) initial description of the place in the past tense.  In a short survey he did of some of the healing wells of the region, this one, “above the Falls and close to the old bridge known as Drochaid Bhragaid (the bridge of the brae)” was where,

“until a generation ago, people were in the  habit of going there to wish, when they threw in small offerings.  It has now fallen into neglect and is absorbed in the marsh.”

The spring and its muddy section can be seen on the west side of the waters, just above the old bridge, as affirmed in Gillies’ (1938) later magnum opus, where he found it to be named the Fuaran Barain, or Barane’s Well—although he failed to disclose the origin of the name and the stories behind it.  It was used as a rag well, as branches in the trees above the spring were bedecked with pieces of cloth, along with offerings being made, in the hope that the spirit of the waters would impart good welfare on celebrants with humility.  Sympathetic magick at ancient sites in this neck o’ the woods was widespread until very recently by many a local (the real stuff—not this neopagan or neo-druidic stuff).  It was simply a part of life whose traditions went way way back into ancestral memory—as things should be…

References:

1. Gillies, William A., “Notes on Old Wells and a Stone Circle at Kenmore“, inProceedings Society of Antiquaries, Scotland, volume 59, 1925.
2. Gillies, William A., In Famed Breadalbane, Munro Press: Perth 1938.

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian