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Wallace's Spa Well

Dunfermline, Pittencrieff Park, Fife.

A long disused well situated a little below the Tower Bridge at the foot of Tower Hill. It is said to have received its name from Sir William Wallace who is alleged to have drunk from it. (P Chalmers 1844-59).

Henderson (1879) states that this well was known as Spaw Well, or Well of Spaw, and suggests that this was easily corrupted into the name "Wallace Spa".

A stone-lined, disused well. Visited by OS (D W R) 18 February 1974.

The site currently has a 1.2 m square capped masonry enclosure with a iron grilled gate .

Alternative Names: None recorded.

Notes: Following success by the English army at the Battle of Falkirk in 1298, William Wallace evaded capture for several years. In 1303 he visited Dunfermline, supposedly to St. Margaret's Shrine, with his mother. Tradition has it that his mother would later die in Dunfermline on one of her son's flights and that she was hastily buried at the spot in the Abbey's graveyard marked by The Thorn Tree. Shortly afterwards, William Wallace was in Dunfermline again, probably to escape from the English spies. During this time the glen of Pittencrieff would have been a relatively large, dense woodland. It is believed that this area close to St Margaret's Cave and Wallace's Well would have been his place of shelter. In the forest of Dunfermline the renowned Wallace may have had meetings with friends to discuss delivering himself up to Edward of England. He was eventually captured and executed in 1305.

Whilst work was being carried out on the Tower Hill in 1906, a cave was found close to the Tower Burn which is believed to be the site of Wallace's Well. It had a small entrance and there was some evidence of it being used as a habitat. Further investigations were carried out as recently as 2013 when stone steps, which appear to lead from the entrance up the banking to the west and possibly towards the Abbey, were revealed.