Township: Middleton

Map Reference: Middleton 1

Name Type: well

Meaning: See Tobar an Dòmhnaich in Longships on the Sand.

Other Forms:

Related Places: Compare: Tobar Didomhnuich in the Western Isles (OS1/18/6/94)

Information:Tobar an Dòmhnaich “well of our Lord” Gregorson Campbell, Witchcraft and Second Sight in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, 1902.

The Celtic Otherworld. Balemeanach (Tiree), Page 564:

DÌ-DÒMHNAICH, SUNDAY (DIES DOMINI)
The name Dòmhnach for our Lord is not common. It is evidently derived from the Latin Dominus. It occurs in the proper name Maol Dòmhnaich (Ludovic), literally ‘the Bald One (i.e the Shaven Priest) of Our Lord,’ a name still to be found in Skye, and formed like Maol Mhoire, Miles (literally ‘the Priest of St Mary’), Maol Ciaran, Maol Ruainidh, etc. There is a streamlet near Strowan in Blair Athole called Allt Dòmhnach, the Streamlet of our Lord, and a Tobar an Dòmhnach, the Well of Our Lord, in Balmeanach in the west of Tiree. In a charm for fulling cloth the expression occurs: “If he (the wearer of the cloth) enter field of fight, the full succour of our Lord be his” (slàn chomraich an Dòmhnach da).
The day is also known as an Dòmhnach without the prefix of di. Other names are those occurring in Scripture – Sabbath, etc.
The plant pulled on Sunday is, according to a proverbial expression, without good or harm (luibh an Dòmhnach gun mhath gun chron)

The water from this well had healing properties. You had to draw it on a Sunday - Alasdair Sinclair, Greenhill, 4/1994

This well is in the field behind Effie MacDonald's house.

Local Form:

Languages : Gaelic

Informants: Alasdair Sinclair, Greenhill, 4/1994

Informant 2: Rev John Gregorson Campbell