Field Visit
Date March 1988
Event ID 1082564
Category Recording
Type Field Visit
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1082564
Situated in a wooded valley E of the Lochgilphead to Oban highway and 450m NW of Ardfern crossroads, this well is marked by a stone-slabbed cistern and an inscribed headstone. The headstone is of red sandstone and has a gableted top; it has been set into a concrete base and is supported by a pair of iron angle-brackets which obscure some of the lettering on the edges.
The front or SE face of the stone bears in false relief a round and bewigged human head. The inscription, in Roman capitals, is as follows (1):
MY NAME IS WATCHMAN I HEIR AM I
STILL WATCH/ ING DAY AND NIGHT I
WELCOMING AL PERS/ONS THAT COMES HEIR I
TO DRINK FOR UHICH I END HEIR YOU SIE I
A DRINKING CUPE I [WAITING ?FOR THE(E)] (2*)
The back bears the inscription:
[THIS I EFFIGIES WHICH I] YOU SIE HEIR
ITS BE/HOLDING AL THAT CO/MES ITS
NEIR TO THIS I NEU FOUND SPRING I
WHICH HEIR RUNS O/UT OF A ROCK AND
A/RE WELCOME TO DR I TO DRINK OF IT
FOR I NOUGHT AT FUNT/AIN iiid OF
MARC/H 1714 THIS AL BY I [BARBREC]
The upper line of the inscription on the top edge is illegible and the lower one appears to read: MIND DAIT [H] OR GLORIE. The text has been effaced from the NE edge and on the SW edge only a few letters can be made out.
This stone was presumably erected by Archibald Campbell of Barbreck, who had succeeded his father by 1691 and was deprived of the estate in 1732 (3). The family are said to have taken up residence in Kintyre (4), and the stone was first recorded in 1833 above a spring at Kilkerran (NR 730192), overlooking Campbeltown Loch (5). It was returned to Barbreck in 1910, and restored to what was believed to be its original position some years later (6*).
RCAHMS 1992, visited March 1988