You don't need to be interested in textiles to appreciate the Clootie Well. A cloot is a cloth, simply, but the Clootie Well is a place where the waters are believed to have healing properties, and a cloth, often a piece of clothing, but not necessarily, dipped in the water and left on a tree near the well, is thought to bring healing to whoever needs it. There are a few folk who need it, as you can see from the photograph. Interestingly, I've never thought to add a cloot myself, though I've always said I need all the healing I can get...
What intruigues me is the biodegradable nature of this particular offering. Over time, the cloth rots and returns to the earth. I like going there, it feels like an optimistic place in a world that can be overly pessimistic. I had thought of making a piece based on the well, but so far, inspiration hasn't arrived. My friend Lynn Bunis did, though, and made a great job of it, as I recall... so maybe
there's hope for me yet. 
3 comments:
Ah the Rosemarkie Clootie Well Tree! Great memories. Yes, I did a quilt about it as part of my City & Guilds. It also received Honorable Mention in the first Loch Lomond Quilt Show (2005). I'll put it in my blog today: highlandline.blogspot.com if anyone would like to see it.
Your holiday sounded so good for you, my dear. I'm glad you had it and that it gave you much needed R&R (even if you didn't know you needed it).
I did this at Fore Monastery in Ireland near St. Fechin's spring.
This is very interesting Marion. Strange, but the word for cloth in Welsh is clwt or clwtyn, sounds axactly like clootie without the ie. Sounds like a lovely holiday.
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