The Clootie Well
Beside a spring in the Scottish Highlands, the trees are hung with thousands of rags. People say that as your rag rots away, so does your illness.
What was reported
Clootie wells are holy springs in Scotland, Ireland and Cornwall where people leave strips of cloth, 'cloots', tied to the branches of nearby trees. The custom is to dip a rag in the water, wash a sick part of the body, and tie the rag to a tree.
As the rag rots, the illness is said to fade away. At the clootie well at Munlochy, on the Black Isle, the trees beside the path are so thickly hung with cloths, socks and ribbons that the wood looks like something from a dream.
Explanations offered
The custom probably goes back to pre-Christian offerings to water spirits, later linked to saints. Visitors today are asked to tie natural fabrics that will rot, since synthetic rags never do.
- When
- Practised for centuries
- Where
- Munlochy, Black Isle, Highland, Scotland
- Witnesses
- Visitors who leave a rag
- Status
- Legend
Famous cases are real, widely reported events. Each file sets out what witnesses said and the explanations that have been offered, without taking a side.
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