Viewing the north-east from Craig-y-barns, the beholder sees a wild stretch of hilly country, in which there lies, secluded and desolate, a tiny roadside spring, once of more than local fame. This is the Grews Well, about six miles from Dunkeld. Many, many years ago, long be fore the Reformation, a chapel was erected there for the benefit of those who spent summer in the shielings tending their cattle and watching their flocks. Tradition and legend still busy themselves round the origin and fame of this Well. One tradition affirms that here a holy man retired from the world to meditate and pray in solitude. He used the pure water of the spring, and his use sanctified it. Another story finds in the proximity of the chapel a plea for the sanctity of the Well. It was the Well of the Holy Cross—Sancta Crux or Cruz—softened in local nomenclature to Grews Well. Whatever the reason, it was regarded as a Wishing Well and a Well which cured all diseases. Numerous indeed are the tales which circle around the Well.

Its fame is not confined to the immediate district. Thousands from all parts flocked to it in Roman Catholic times, arriving halt and maimed, returning sound in mind and body; the font in use then, a rude stone basin, survives and still remains in the overflow streamlet, set around with moss, heather and bog myrtle. But to find the cure truly efficacious the sufferer must journey thither on the first Sunday of May (Old Style is generally reckoned yet) and this points to the probability of the annual pilgrimage being actually a relic of Pagan times, a Beltane feast, when the people assembled to welcome summer and to watch the kindling of the fire of Baal.

This Well figures in the Presbyterial Records of Dunkeld at least as far back as 1656. The Assembly about that period were greatly exercised as to witchcraft, and special efforts were made to fight the supposed evil. Perthshire had not been exempt from the terrors of witchcraft in the past. Margret, Countess of Atholl, was alleged to have been guilty of witchcraft in 1566 (Laws’ Memorialls), and in 1570 witches in Atholl were said to have sent a present to Queen Mary. It was a pretty hart horn, the size of the palm of a man’s hand, covered with gold. On it were engraven the Arms of Scotland, with a gentlewoman seated on a throne with a crown on her head. The rose and thistle were under her feet. Below were two lions and the motto, "Fall what may fall, the lyon sall be lord of all." (Calderwood’s History). So it behoved the Presbytery to be zealous;"charmers" were suspected of paction with the evil one. On April 27, 1656, the elders of Logierait were "exhorted to be circumspect in their places that none goe to wells and especiallie John Robertsone at the Porte to take notice of any that goes that way to Crewss Well."

Another extract from the Rattray Kirk Session Minutes, Aug. 30, 1657, reads, "Compaired Christiane Reat who was accused of breach of Sabbath by travelling thereon to Grwss Well and for ascribing more vertew to that Well upon that day (the first Sabbath of May) nor to any other well upon any other day." Poor Christian pleaded that she only did as others did, but "the Minister did labour to make her sensible that it was sinfull to hir to doe such things, and she submitted hir self to the will of the session." The following Sabbath she had to confess her sin publicly and promise never to do the like again.

Still, the belief in the healing powers of the Well persisted. and as recently as 1842, Imrie records in his "Notes" ; "This spring, Grews Well, is considered to possess medicinal qualities of the first order, but the only time that these qualities have their proper efficacy is on the first Sabbath of May, Old Style. Annually upon that day, many still resort to that spring travelling sometimes twenty and even thirty miles fully convinced that the drinking of the water and other ceremonies will restore health when all other remedies have failed. But the drinking of the spring is not all, there are certain stones of the place which must be used also; there is one for almost every disease and there is always some person on the spot to point out the proper stones and give instructions how they are to be used. . . . Everyone who expects to be benefited must put something into it for an offering; small pieces of money used to be dropped in, but now only buttons or pins. It is stated that those who take out offerings never thrive, but it appears that it has been often risked. Immediately above the Well is a Cairn that has also to be traversed three times round and a stone added."

There are various ways of reaching the Well from Dunkeld. One, passing the Fungarth Knowes and Craiglush, leaves the Blairgowrie Road shortly after the third milestone, the Cardney Burn on the left, and reaches Grews Well by way of Knowehead and Over Cardney; another leaves the same road about a mile farther on, near Butterstone, climbing upwards through the romantic Den of Riechip. The most picturesque, however, is that which passes through the gate at Cally Lodge. This latter route is wild and solitary. Skirting Craig-y-barns and the Piper’s Moss, the road passes Cally Loch, Upper Hatton and Birkenburn; thence through the "Glack" or "gap," once a foxhunting place, on to the Chapman’s Brig—a name recalling pedlar days. Rumour has it that one of these worthies hanged himself at this spot. Silent and solitary, eerie even, as this path is, it leads through a district which was once populous and cultivated. In old records, references are made to many of the places close at hand, which are but heaps of stones dotted on marsh or heathery moorland; the only sound to break the silence, the cry of moorland birds. Such are Craigilto or Auchagowan. Yet corn once ripened there, cattle and poultry fattened, for in a church record, dated 1674, we read that the proprietors, tenants and others gave, or were asked for, the tenth sheaf of corn, the tenth stone of cheese, the tenth goose or calf, and such like products. The lands belonged then to the Church, and certain rights and privileges connected with them were granted to the citizens of Dunkeld by the Bishop, 1041, places mentioned being the "Haltowne of Tulliemille, Auchnagoule and Birkerburn." Spelling was not a strong point long ago. From these places, too, came weavers to sell their wares in Dunkeld market; and a stone near the Hatton, which was but lately broken up, was known as "Lang tow," receiving this designation from the nickname of a weaver, famed for his height, who, toiling to the weekly market at Dunkeld with his wares, invariably rested on its flat surface.

From Chapman’s Brig a glorious view over the hills is obtained. Farther on is the Leddoun Crag and Gate. Above rises precipitously the rocky, riven heights of the Deucharie, a few years ago crowned with firs, its sides purple with heather. It rises shorn of its glory; the firs have fallen and the heather has yielded to the insidious advance of bracken.

This road, or part of it, figured in a right-of-way case which created much excitement at the time. It had long been regarded by many as an indisputable right-of-way, and when several incidents occurred which seemed likely to deny that assumption, contention arose. After various preliminaries and much heated dispute in the Dunkeld Parish Council, the County Council refused to take the matter up. A Dunkeld Public Rights Committee was formed, and of these, three acted as pursuers in the case. It was tried in the Court of Session before the Lord Justice-Clerk, Edinburgh, March, 1906, the Press giving a very full report of the proceedings. The pursuers’ case was that there was a right-of-way from Dunkeld to Kirkmichael, leaving the public highway at Cally Lodge, thence by the Hatton, Birkenburn, Glack, Cardney Hill and Crews Well. The defenders contended that the roads in question were estate roads on the Atholl and other estates. Many witnesses were called for and against. After long deliberation, the jury found unanimously that the pursuers had failed to establish their claim, the Lord Justice-Clerk, in summing up, laying stress not on the number of people who had used the road believing it to be a right-of-way, but on the point that there had been a fence, unchallenged, across part of it for many years. The decision was somewhat in the nature of a surprise to many.

The district is a network of old roads, relics of bygone days, bridle paths and drove roads.

The track joins the Butterstone Road not far from a house, dismantled but not yet quite in ruins, and opposite it is the Well, just beneath the bank. Still to be seen, moss-grown and under grass it is true, and half-hidden yet conspicuous enough to the observant, are the special stones for backache, toothache or headache. Buttons or crooked pins ornament the sandy soil in the Well, offerings of a sordid age; though there are pilgrims yet who aver there is virtue in the Well.

One witness in the right-of-way case referred to, said he was taken there as a child for the whooping-cough. Another declared he had heard of a man who was taken there on a barrow and jumped out himself. A third witness told how he took his child there himself and made her wash in the water, as the doctor had said he could do no more. Either the bathing or change of air did her good, and he had also heard of a man who was carried there, who bathed and then walked home.

Other places of interest are in the vicinity. The three high hills which look down upon the Well, the Deucharie, Ben-e-challie and Riemore, have all glorious views of fertile plains, moors and mountains, lochs and rivers, villages and towns, and clumps of white heather are wonderfully common.

Ben-e-challie (1594 feet high) ( Map ) is recognised by the tower on its top, locally alluded to as "Lazy Donald." The story is told that when the men employed by Sir John Bissett of Riechip were digging the foundation for this tower, they came across a skull, bones, brass buttons and accoutrements which indicated a trooper’s dress. The supposition was that a messenger journeying northwards from Perth to Braemar with money to pay troops was murdered for its sake. In the Den of Riechip near by is the "Murderer’s Well."

The view from the top is very extensive. It looks towards Birnam on the south with Deucharie rsing darkly on the orth, its position betwixt the two giving rise to a weather rhyme:

"Ben-e-challie says to Deucharie,

Birnam’s got a tap;

Deucharie says to Ben-e-challie,

Then we’ll hae a drap."

This saying is seldom, if ever at fault, for mist on Birnam is a sure precursor of rain.

In the hill are two caves. One, "Harry’s Hole," whither Harry "retired after forcing the unwary passer-by to pay tribute; and the "Drap," the latter recognised when found by the reiterated, constant sound of a drop of water.

The view comprises, the Sidlaws, the Fife Lomonds, with the wilder Grampian peaks as Schiehallion, Ben Lawers, Beny-ghloe and mountains beyond Glenshee, while a unique feature is the large number of lochs visible. At the base, Ben-e-challie Loch yields its waters to supply Blairgowrie, and Loch Ordie gives to Dunkeld. Many of the Stormont lochs sparkle in the valley, Clunie with its ancient Castle and Island forming a picture in itself.

From the hill of Deucharie other lochs appear, amongst them the tiny pear-shaped Loch Oiseannachd, near which the famous divine, Robert Murray M’Cheyne, once spent a night wrapped in his cloak, having lost himself walking from Dunkeld to Kirkmichael. The old drove road to Kirkmichael winds along the side of Riemore, and a mile or two up is the Cross o’ Coupar. On an Ordnance map this was marked B.S., or Boundary Stone, and is, or was, similar in shape to a milestone, sloping on the top. A strange place for such a stone, it may appear, with brooding silence and solitude all around, but once upon a time a different tale might be told. The stone marks the boundary of the Abbey Lands of Coupar; there where several of such marks; at the Chapman’s Brig was another. A market was also held at one time at the Cross o’ Coupar; farmers and drovers congregated there as a central spot and there is a park in the neighbourhood still called "The Drovers’ Park." Stretching away for miles is the Forest of Clunie, a sight to sadden any lover of Scotland, for in the graphic words of a Perthshire farmer, "Once forty smokes ascended, now there is but one." There are no stories of eviction. People appear to have just drifted away.

About a mile beyond Grews Well is Loch Ordie. ( Map ) At an altitude of nearly a thousand feet, it lies in an ampitheatre of lonely hills. A few short years ago, bosky glades of fir and fern adorned its banks. Scarcely a tree remains. The Loch Ordie plantations were famous in their day. A curious account of the planting, begun in 1815, is narrated in MacLean’s Guide. The purchase of several thousands of acres of ground at 25 years’ purchase was 9d. per acre per annum. The plants cost 4 shillings per 1200, the expense of roads, drives and bridges was only 7/6 per rood, men’s wages each 1/3 per day, and the expenditure altogether £2 10/- per Scotch acre.

In the same Guide a quotation occurs from a letter written by John, 4th Duke of Atholl, with regard to this plantation. He writes; "Drove up to Loch Ordie and home by the back of Craig-y-barns, very much gratified by the growth of larch and the spruce. A very fine, grand, picturesque drive, not to be equalled in Britain. The extent of the drive through woods of my own planting, from one to forty years old, is fifteen miles."

The Royal Navy, the Mercantile Marines and the railroads of Britain have benefited by such plantations. For one frigate alone, "The Athole," built in 1816-20, 772 larches were cut down between Dunkeld and Blair-Atholl.

The banks of Loch Ordie are again bare, but there still remains the witchery of sparkling waters and the exhilaration of mountain air. The loch itself is about 2 1/2 miles in circumference and has a peculiar outcrop rock and numerous pretty little bays and creeks. At one end is a Cairn commemorating the visit of Queen Victoria.

Dunkeld an Ancient City
Elizabeth Stewart
Dunkeld, 1926

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