Back to list
St Bernar's Well and Hygieia

St Bernar's Well and Hygieia

892 12

Lawson McCulloch


Free Account, Musselburgh, Scotland

St Bernar's Well and Hygieia

This mineral water well is on the south bank of the Water of Leith, on an estate once known as St Bernard's. Just below a footpath is St Bernard's Well (55°57′19.1″N 3°12′41.4″W); the well-house was originally built in 1760. The waters of the well were held in high repute for their medicinal qualities, and the nobility and gentry took summer quarters in the valley to drink deep draughts of the water and take the country air. In 1788 Lord Gardenstone, a wealthy Court of Session judge who thought he had benefited from the mineral spring, commissioned Alexander Nasmyth to design a new pump room. The builder John Wilson began work in 1789. It is in the shape of a circular Greek temple supported by ten tall Doric order columns, with a statue made in 1791 from Coade stone of Hygieia, the Greek goddess of health, in the centre. St Bernard's F.C., a once successful Scottish team but now defunct were named after the famous well and played in Stockbridge.

Comments 12

Information

Section
Views 892
Published
Language
License

Exif

Camera NEX-7
Lens Sony E 18-55mm F3.5-5.6 OSS
Aperture 9
Exposure time 1/60
Focus length 18.0 mm
ISO 125