Deep, deep in a forest, lang unseen by human een, lay a sma pool fed fae unner grund by a naitural spring. It wis kent as the Clootie Well and fowk used tae come fae faur and wide tae see it. For it wis famed as a magic place, a place o healin...

The Clootie Well is the second story which I was commissioned to write for BBC Scotland, as part of their Stories in Scots series. You can hear me reading the story on the BBC Sounds website HERE. 

A cloot is the Scots word for a cloth and a clootie well is a traditional place of healing, where people would tie scraps of cloth and make a wish that they or their loved ones would be cured of their ailments. In this story, Ellie stumbles across an ancient clootie well on a woodland walk, and meets the mysterious Agnes, who knows all about the healing power of plants. But is there more to Agnes than Ellie at first realises, and what is her link to the magical clootie well?

Click the links below to download a glossary of the Scots words used in the story, and a worksheet about Scots plant names, based on the themes in the story:

Clootie Well Glossary
Scots Plants Names

Further Reading

The following books give more information on the Scots names, and traditional uses, of Scottish plants:
Tess Darwin, The Scots Herbal: the Plant Lore of Scotland (1996)
Greg Kenicer, Scottish Plant Lore: an Illustrated Flora (2018)
—, Scottish Plant Names: an A to Z (2023)

The RAWS website (Remembering the Accused Witches of Scotland) offers an education pack for primary schools about the historical Scottish witch trials: https://www.raws.scot/team-3