Hello and welcome to Stories of Scotland, a podcast where we pump Scottish heritage stories out from the depth of the well of knowledge. You're welcome to take a drink with us. I'm Jenny.

And I'm Annie. And this week we're continuing the theme of coasts and waters to talk about wells,

gloody wells and witches and wells. Well, well, well. Oh, this is going to be a long episode.

What do we mean when we're talking about wells?

We mean holes puncturing the surface of the earth to reach natural springs and flows of water.

Some wells are deep and some are shallow.

But they are all essentially just holes dug for that pure Scottish water. And as they say Annie, all's well

it ends well. Well said, Jenny. I don't know if it was. So wells are rich in heritage and stories.

They are a source of freshwater and so were essential to the health and hygiene of people for millennia.

One of my favourite wells is the Berghead well, which is just along the Mabby Coast on the northeast of Scotland.

And why is it your favourite well, Annie?

Well, Jenny, I'm glad you asked.

It was found within an annex of a massive Pictish fort in

Burghead. In the present day, the incredible Pictish fort of Berghead is kind of reduced to

mounds of the outlines of where the walls were, where the main parts of the settlement were.

However, you could easily

visit and not realise there had even been a fort there at all. So it's just big mounds of suspiciously

Pictish grass. Yes, incredibly big Pictish fort mounds of grass. But the well lies within

these boundaries down a little side straight.

You have to get a key before you can enter the well from either the nearby cafe or the visitor

centre.

And you descend the steps into a cold, damp square space.

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