Valerie Gillies

It's turned out to be more like five or infinite number of years going around the healing wells and springs of Scotland.

Because once you've started, how can you finish?

The wells keep flowing and the spring keeps running.

And it's just been, it began with a question.

What did people do before they had Panadol or Cocodamol?

Or what did they do?

They went to the healing well.

Where is it?

It's one that's nearby.

Because most of them were considered to be healing.

perhaps not the domestic one that you got your bucket of water from, but one that you travelled a little bit to get to, one that you walked on foot or took your pony and went there.

These are the places that people knew about in the past and they're surrounded with folklore and legend and the story of how it came to be a healing well.

I did lots of research first before I went to visit any of the wells in a particular region of Scotland.

And then I knew what I was looking for and what people had used it for.

I mean, the nearest famous well here is on Arthur's Seat.

And it was a well that was used against blindness.

And it's unusual because we have a literal account by someone who was near the well when he saw some women approaching with a little girl who had her eyes tied up in a rag.

And they soaked the rag in well water and tied it back on the child.

And then they...

went away leading her with them and weeping so that was their prayer really was what do we do how do we help this child and you think we've got the eye hospital and we've got this and we've got that we've got amazing drugs i once mentioned that story