North Queensferry, The Brae, Waterloo Well

Also standing on The Brae, are three of the village's wells. Waterloo Well figure 26, stands near the foot of the hill. Named to commemorate the Battle of Waterloo, it was built in 1816. It has a curvilinear gable with a ball finial; and inset there is a stone carving of a ship. Immediately to its north, a little further up the hill, are an earlier well, Lion's Head Well and water tank, decorated on a cast iron cover with Europa and the bull and a woman fighting with a man. The local tradition is that this was a Ferry woman fighting with a sailor who was attempting to take the village's precious water. Alternatively, it may represent a local woman fighting with the water man, who could regulate the flow of water, from the water house, further up the hill. Beside Waterloo Well stood a stone trough, a reminder of coaching days and the need to water horses. This has now been sited across the road, beside the war memorial. Further up the hill, stands Jubilee Well. Erected to commemorate the sixtieth jubilee of Queen Victoria, it has the inscription, 'This ancient spring was restored by lovers of the Ferry for the solace of wayfarers and in memory of sixty years of Her Majesty's reign happily completed 1837-1897'. The water house stood nearby and is commemorated by a stone in the wall dated 1783. The other extant old well is Willie's Well, close beside the edge of the old village washing green. It is said that anyone who drinks of its water will always return to the Ferry.

Information from ‘Historic North Queensferry and the Peninsula: The Archaeological Implications of Development’ (1999).