The Clootie Well of Munlochy

Clootie Well, Munlochy, Black Isle, Scotland

At the clootie well near Munlochy, thousands of strips of cloth hang from the surrounding trees — each one tied there by someone seeking healing. The tradition is at least 1,500 years old and shows no sign of ending.

The clootie well at Munlochy on the Black Isle is the most visited and most extensive example of a tradition that once existed at healing springs across the British Isles. A clootie (clout) is a piece of fabric — a strip torn from a garment, a handkerchief, a bandage — which is dipped in the spring water and then tied to a branch of the trees surrounding the well. The original logic: the illness or affliction transfers from the person to the cloth. As the cloth rots, the illness is transferred to the earth. This means that removing the cloths from the trees — as local authorities have periodically attempted, on grounds of both aesthetics and biology — actually harms the people who tied them there. The local community has consistently resisted removal. The site is dedicated to a saint — St Boniface or St Curitan — and was certainly in use before the Reformation. The surrounding trees are now so heavily laden with fabric that in some sections the branches are entirely hidden. The colours range from faded white rags to recent additions still bright. The tradition is demonstrably continuing: new cloths are tied there constantly, by local people and by visitors from considerable distances. The requests for healing range, based on attached notes, from cancer to grief to unspecified petitions. The well is entirely unofficial — no church, no management, no signage beyond a small Historic Scotland marker. It manages itself.