Highlands - Well of the Heads

Well of the Heads, Highlands

Sandwiched between the busy A82 and the genteel waters of Loch Oich is a site that boasts an interesting coalition of water lore and history. The spring itself issues from the bank and runs into the loch. It can be reached by walking through the short tunnel in the stone well house that encloses it. Above the well is a tall needle-like monument that marks a particularly bloody event in local history. Sitting atop the obelisk is a sculpture of a hand holding a large dagger and seven severed heads. If the name doesn't give the story away then the sculpture that crowns the monument must do so.

The obelisk was erected in 1812 by the then chief of the Clan McDonell to mark an event that took place in the 1660s. History relates that on 25th September 1663, two members of the Keppoch family - Alexander the thirteenth chief, and his brother Ranald - were brutally murdered by seven assailants. The Keppochs were a branch of the powerful Clan MacDonald and were engaged in an argument with one Alexander MacDougall MacDonald of Inverlair over a piece of land.

Two years later, a Privy Council meeting in Edinburgh issued a letter of "Fire and Sword" against their murderers. Another member of the Keppoch family, Ian Lom (Bald John), with the help of the MacDonalds of Sleat sought "ample and summary vengeance" for the murders by killing and decapitating the seven men. It is said that on his way to Invergarry castle, to present the heads to the chief of Clan MacDonald of Glengarry, Lom stopped at the spring to wash the heads to make them more presentable. Ever since then the spring has been known as Tobar nan Ceann, the Gaelic for Well of the Heads.

Later, the heads were sent to Edinburgh and ordered to be "affixit to the gallowes standing on the Gallowlie between Edinburgh and Leith". The bodies were said to be buried in a nearby mound and have since been exhumed, thus providing evidence for the truth of the story.

To the best of my knowledge this well has no legends concerning its curative or divinatory powers and has no saintly associations. It is interesting because of its associations with the severed head. A number of wells have associations with the severed head (see St. Nectan's Well, Stoke). In Scotland there are a number of wells called Tobar a' Chinn (Well of the Head) or Tobar nan Ceann, especially on the western islands where the Celts were particularly prevalent.

As Janet and Colin Bord point out, this site suggests a remarkable continuation of the Celtic practice of head and water worship in two respects. Firstly, it illustrates the taking of heads as a trophy of success over enemies. And secondly, there is the common link between the supposed magical properties of the severed head and water. It also poses the question of whether this spring, with no known healing or divinatory properties would be considered noteworthy if the events of the 1660s never occurred.

This is not a pretty or even picturesque well. Strictly speaking it is not even a holy or healing well. However, it does have a very interesting legend associated with it, and the echoes of the Celtic cult of the severed head, (whether the cult ever really existed or not), further add to the interest. Surely it is worth a look.

O.S.G.R.:	NN 304 993 (34).
Location:	¾ mile SW of Invergarry, 21 miles NE of Fort William.
Directions:	From Invergarry take the A82 S over the river. After about ¾ mile the monument can be seen on the left hand side of the road, opposite a shop. Plenty of roadside parking nearby. A path leads down to the loch and the spring.

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