Clootie Well
Written by John MacphersonThis is a short film showing the Clootie Well on the Black Isle in Scotland. People visit the well to use the spring water and leave pieces of cloth on the surrounding trees.
This work has grown out of my fascination with the ways that people affect the environment, but also by the ways that the environment can affect people.
This film is a work in progress and will eventually contain some sound recordings of visitors to the well speaking, explaining why they come, what they feel there, and how it has affected their lives.
Clootie Well from john macpherson on Vimeo.
Whilst I was shooting it a mother and daughter arrived. The mother explained that her daughter had been given only days to live when she was born so they came to the well and got some well water to anoint the baby. She lived, and had surgery for a heart problem several years later, which had a low chance of a successful outcome, but again they used the well water, and all turned out positively.
And the reason for this visit, with her (now 15 years old) daughter, was that more surgery was planned for the following week and they were taking precautions. Whilst I spoke to the mum, her daughter wandered off, sat down and removed her shoes, took off her socks and placed them in an open area on two sticks – you can see them near the end of the piece.
Author — John Macpherson
John MacPherson was born and lives in the Scottish Highlands. He trained as a welder in the Glasgow shipyards, before completing an apprenticeship as a carpenter, and then qualified as a Social Worker in Disability Services. Along the way he has cooked on canal barges, trained as an Alpine Ski Leader & worked as an Instructor for Skiers with disabilities, been a canoe instructor, and tutor of night classes in carpentry, stained glass design and manufacture, and archery. He has travelled extensively on various continents, undertaking solo trips by bicycle, or motorcycle. He has had narrow escapes from an ambush by terrorists, been hit by lightning, caught in an erupting volcano, trapped in a mobile home by a tornado, kidnapped by a dog's hairdresser, rammed by a basking shark and was once bitten by a wild otter. He has combined all this with professional photography, which he has practised for over 35 years. He teaches photography and acts as a photography guide & tutor in the UK and abroad. His biggest challenge is keeping his 30 year old Land Rover 110 on the road. He loves telling and hearing stories.