Hanging Rags, cloths & clothes on trees. Scottish folklore and superstition at Clootie, Cloughtie Well, Munlochy, Black Isle, Invernesshire, Scotland
Clootie Well, an ancient spring dedicated to St Curidan, where rags (cloots) are still hung on the surrounding bushes and trees. This was once a common practice at holy wells throughout Scotland. The Clootie Well was once thought to have had the power to cure sick children, who were left there overnight. A “cloot” is simply a cloth. Clootie wells are a last reminder of the healing wells of the Celts and Romans. In those ancient wells, people with ailments would come to wash and would throw in little carvings of the afflicted body part as an offering to the spirit of the well - little arms and legs, like the Milagros still found in Mexico. When excavating ancient wells in Celtic countries, archaeologists regularly find these little carvings. In Northumberland, England more than 14,000 coins, statuettes, jewels and pottery were discovered in an ancient well. Later, people simply brought a piece of cloth, dipped it in the healing well water and used it to wash their body. Then they hung up the cloth on a tree by the well.
Size: 3413px × 5120px
Location: Black Isle Invernesshire, Scotland uk
Photo credit: © MediaWorldImages / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No
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