St Coittag's Well, Achnacloich

Dedication: Saint Caeti

Location: Achnacloich

Status: lost

"Coittag" appears to be a corruption of the name "Mo-Chétóg", another name for the 7th and 8th century St Caeti, the patron saint of the local parish church. Very little is known of Caeti's life, apart from the fact that he was once the Bishop of Iona, and that he died in or around the year 711.

It is rumoured that a small chapel and burial ground were once located at Achnacloich, along with St Coittag's Well, which was reportedly in great repute for the healing of diseases. At least by the late 18th century, the well was particularly credited for its efficacy in the curing of the so-called "bloody-flux" (also known as dysentry). John Gillies described the well in One Day's Journey to the Highlands of Scotland, a book in which he described a journey to the Highlands he undertook on the 12th of March, 1784:

At Eaſter-Shian, in Glenquaich, there is a Popiſh chapel of ſome antiquity, and not far from which, on a fine plain, is Ach-na-cloich, i.e. Stonyhaugh, where there is a well, called St Coittag's-well, which was held in great veneration; for, long ſince, a great concourſe of people, both from England and Ireland, are ſaid to have aſſembled, and made uſe of this water, in order to be cured of their various diſeaſes: But it appears, that the virtue of this water, is now principally confined to one diſeaſe, namely, the bloody-flux; at this well there was a ſmall chapel and cemitery [sic]. There is another well, not far from thence, called the Well of Coreach, to which ſome virtues are likewiſe aſcribed.

Despite its high reputation in 1784, the location of St Coittag's Well has become completely forgotten. As the site was not marked on Ordnance Survey maps, it seems that its location had already become lost by the 1860s; it is quite probable that the well was in fact destroyed, as there do not appear to be any obvious existing candidates for its location. It is suggested on the Canmore database that St Coittag's Well may have been the same as the Well of Coreach, but Gillies' statement clearly disproves this.