Showing posts with label Oyly Well. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Oyly Well. Show all posts

Tuesday 2 August 2022

Skulferatu #77 - The Oyly Well, Liberton, Edinburgh


If you were out on your travels and you stumbled across a pool of oily water, would you think that it must have some special or miraculous properties?  Probably not.  You would probably just think – Yuk, what is that?  This was not the way they thought in Medieval times though.  In the days before pollution and oil spills, science, and modern medicine, anything out of the ordinary could and often would seem to be something miraculous, something provided by God above to help us mere mortals down here on earth. So it was with the oily waters that rise from a spring in Liberton to form the Oyly Well.

 

A photo showing a small stone building with a metal, gated door.  This is the building that covers the Oyly Well in Liberton, Edinburgh.  Photograph by Kevin Nosferatu for the Skulferatu Project.
The Oyly Well

 

The Oyly Well, also known as the Balm Well, St Catherine’s Well, or the Balm Well of St Katherine, sits in what were once the grounds of St Catherine’s Chapel.  The chapel, which is now long gone, was built on the instructions of Queen Margaret (later St Margaret of Scotland) in honour of St Catherine of Sienna. 

 

The waters of the Oyly Well rise up from a spring that passes through the oil shale in the ground below, and this is why they are oily.  In olden times though the story went that Queen Margaret returned from Mount Sinai with some of the oil of St Catherine, and being a bit of a clumsy clod, she somehow managed to spill the oil on the spot where the spring rises.  This led to the waters becoming oily and having healing properties. 

 

The well soon became famous for the curative qualities of its water and was referred to locally as the Balm Well.  It was said that the oily waters could cure many skin complaints such as scabies.  They were also said to cure conditions leading to aching bones such as arthritis and rheumatism while also helping to alleviate the symptoms of gout and paralysis.  And if drunk they were supposedly good for preventing hysteria or breathing problems such as asthma.

 

A closer up photo showing a small stone building with a metal, gated door.  This is the building that covers the Oyly Well in Liberton, Edinburgh.  Photograph by Kevin Nosferatu for the Skulferatu Project
The Oyly Well

 

A view through the bars of the Oyly Well showing the stone structure inside and the oily waters.  Photograph by Kevin Nosferatu for the Skulferatu Project
The interior of the Oyly Well

 

The well was a big hit with the Scottish royals and was visited by various kings.  King James VI was a huge fan of the well and believed fully in the healing properties of its waters.  In 1617, on a trip back from England, where he was of course King James I, he stopped off at the well and ordered that it be properly enclosed and have a stairwell constructed down to the water so that it was easier to access.  However, in 1650 some of Cromwell’s soldiers, who were camped nearby, destroyed the structure around the well and filled it in.   During the Reformation the well was cleared of rubble and partially rebuilt, with the full structure that is there now being constructed in 1889.

 

A view of the interior of the Oyly Well showing the stone structure inside and the oily waters. Waters that supposedly had healing properties.   Photograph by Kevin Nosferatu for the Skulferatu Project.
The inside of the Oyly Well with its oily waters

 

Today the well can be found in a quiet spot in the garden at the back of a rather grand house which stands in the area where St Catherine’s Chapel once stood.  The house was built in 1806 for the architect John Simpson, and it was also the one time home of Sir William Rae, the Lord Advocate who oversaw the prosecution of the infamous body snatchers and murderers, Burke and Hare.  In its various incarnations since then the house has been a children’s home and is now a Toby Carvery restaurant.

 

On my visit there I sat in the early afternoon sun and watched the oily waters of the well bubble away.  Was I tempted to try them to alleviate any of my aches and pains, rub them onto my arthritic knees or have a swig to cure my wheezing hay fever?  Nah – no chance.   

 

A picture of the Oyly Well in its quiet spot behind some trees in the garden of the Toby Carvery on Howden Hall Road in Edinburgh.  Photograph by Kevin Nosferatu for the Skulferatu Project.
The Oyly Well can be found in a quiet spot...

 

I left the Skulferatu that accompanied me on my walk in a little dimple in the stone roof of the well, but then I gave into temptation and…

 

Alas dear reader, I did something

I shouldn’t have oughta

I threw the Skulferatu

Into the oily water…

 

A photo of a small ceramic skull (Skulferatu 77) being held up in front of the Oyly Well.  Photograph by Kevin Nosferatu for the Skulferatu Project.
Skulferatu #77

 

A photo of a small ceramic skull (Skulferatu 77) lying in a dimple on the roof of the building in which the Oyly Well sits.  Photograph by Kevin Nosferatu for the Skulferatu Project.
Skulferatu #77 sitting in a dimple on the stone roof of the well

 

TomTom Map showing the location of Skulferatu #77
Map showing the location of Skulferatu #77

 

The coordinates for the location of the Skulferatu are –

 

Latitude 55.902881

Longitude -3.164044

 

I used the following sources for information on the Oyly Well –

 

Canmore – Balm Well

Canmore - Balm Well

 

The Scotsman - Monday 11 March 1889

 

The Oyly Well; or a Topographico-Spagyrical Description of the Oyly-Well, at St. Catharines Chappel in the Paroch of Libberton,

By Matthew Mackail, 1664

 

New Statistical Account of Scotland – Volume 1

By the Ministers of the Respective Parishes, etc.

1845

 

Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland - Volume 17

‘Holy Wells’ in Scotland

By J Russell Walker

1883