St Katherine's Well, Eigg

Dedication: Saint Catherine

Location: Eigg (southern coast of)

Status: lost

The earliest known record of the existence of St Katherine's Well dates from 1703, when Martin Martin's Tour of the Western Isles, which he undertook in the late 17th century, was published. In his Tour, Martin described what appears to have been the recent creation of a new holy well by a visiting priest (the following is taken from the 2nd edition, published in 1716):

In the Village on the South Coaſt of this Iſle there is a Well, call'd St. Katherine's Well; the Natives have it in great Eſteem, and believe it to be a Catholicon for Diſeaſes. They told me that it had been ſuch ever ſince it was conſecrated by one Father Hugh, a Popiſh Prieſt, in the following manner: He oblig'd all the Inhabitants to come to this Well, and then imploy'd them to bring together a great heap of Stones at the Head of the Spring, by way of Penance. This being done, he ſaid Maſs at the Well, and then conſecrated it; he gave each of the Inhabitants a piece of Wax Candle, which they lighted, and all of them made the Deſſil, of going round the Well Sunways, the Prieſt leading them: and from that time it was accounted unlawful to boil any Meat with the Water of this Well.

The Natives obſerve St. Katherine's Anniverſary; all of them come to the Well, and having drank a Draught of it, they make the Deſſil round it Sunways; this is always perform'd on the 15th Day of April.

From the sound of Martin's report, it seems that this well was entirely new. It is interesting to note that the majority of Eigg's inhabitants were, at this time, Roman Catholic - Martin claimed that only one woman on the island was Protestant. The well remained "in great Eſteem" for some time, and, by the 19th century, it had become particularly known, according to N. MacPherson, writing in 1878 in the Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, for healing cases of the "falling sickness" (epilepsy). Reportedly, the people of Eigg were by this time afraid to drink from the well, "for fear of catching the ailment of which the sick had been cured".

Unfortunately, despite its local fame, the exact location of St Katherine's Well had been forgotten by the late 19th century. Martin Martin was clear that the well was located in a settlement on the southern coast of Eigg; there are only two settlements here: Grulin, and Galmisdale. In the October of 1889, it was suggested in Scottish Notes and Queries that the well was located at "Gruline", although there can be no certainty that this is the correct location. N. MacPherson himself claimed that the well was "situated a mile W[est] of Toper na Beanmha", also known as the Saints' Well, which is geographically impossible; the Historic Environment Record quotes this as proof that the well was located in Grulin, despite the fact that this would place the well a mile out to sea. In short, there is no more evidence to prove that St Katherine's Well was located in Grulin than there is to prove that it existed in Galmisdale, and it is therefore impossible to even begin to list potential sites that could have been this holy well.