Does the restored 'Iron Wellie' in Wick have healing powers?
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THE famed Grotto of Massabielle in Lourdes brings in thousands of "pilgrims" seeking miracle cures with its alleged healing waters – but could a natural spring on the north side of Wick Bay become a similar beacon for the sick and ailing? Some reports suggest it may be more than just a fanciful notion.
When first contacted by Wick historian Harry Gray about the recent restoration of the "Iron Wellie", we had visions of a giant Wellington boot unearthed from the Caithness moors. That theory was firmly booted into touch after a visit to this unearthed marvel on the northern side of Wick Bay.
The Iron Wellie is in fact a spring water well situated down a flight of recently restored Caithness flagstone steps close to the Soldiers' Tower on the North Head.
Charlie Bain of Wick Paths Group explained how together with Denny Swanson, Tommy Munro and others from the Royal British Legion Scotland they recently restored the site of the spring.
"The steps down to it were overgrown and damaged," he said. "We also replaced the pipe the water flows through and there is a marker stone at the top of the steps."
Denny Swanson said he remembered bringing the water to his mother who suffered from arthritis for most of her life.
"She sent me down every second day for a bottle of 'Iron Wellie water', as she called it. She maintained it helped her arthritis and it certainly seemed to take some of her pain away."
After Harry symbolically cut a ribbon of barricade tape the group, together with Charlie's dog Jet, went down for a taste of the water that many in the area depended on in bygone times. It is speculated that the inhabitants of nearby Tinkers' Cave would have consumed the water. The Wick worthy Tudor James resided close to the site and lived to a ripe old age.
Harry said that the Iron Wellie was also known as the Chalybeate Spring and its taste has been described like "sookin' pennies".
"Chalybeate waters, also known as ferruginous waters, are mineral waters containing salts of iron – hence the local name Iron Wellie," he said.
"There is no written history of this well but it was certainly known in the 18th century and by the turn of the 20th century it was sometimes referred to as 'Jocky Simpson's Wellie'. Who Jocky Simpson was, is lost in time."
Harry said that "generations of Wickers" out for a walk along the braes or exiles home on holiday would nearly always stop for a drink from the wellie.
"We as youngsters firmly believed that the water did us good despite the taste and it was a welcome drink when playing around the North Head or when fishing or swimming from the rocks," he said.
"Young lads get hungry and we would sneak a turnip from Bob Cormack's field above the wellie, dock it on a stab [for the uninitiated that means removing the ends of the neep by striking it against a fence post] and we then cut off the skin and washed the neep in the Iron Wellie water before sitting on a rock and devouring it."
Harry laughed at how present-day health and safety regulations would make drinking the water seem like a risky act "but none of us became ill or died from it, perhaps proving the efficacy of the wellie's water".
Perhaps in the future Wick will host thousands of pilgrims queuing up for a taste of the rejuvenating powers of the Iron Wellie water.
