Rabbie's Well Wood and Swindridgemuir Spout
13 October, 2011
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Rabbie's Well Wood
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The Swindridgemuir Spout and cast iron pipes
The micro-history of an area is lost unless the memories of local people are preserved. Barkip and the lands around the Bombo Burn are rich in such recollections.
High Swindridgemuir is now a ruined farm overlooking the Barkip anaerobic digestion biogas plant, however in its prime it had a curling pond below it, accompanied by a rare curling house, filled with old curling stones within living memory, all now things of the past. An ironstone pit, clay pit, coal pit and limestone quarry and a railway line were also in the vicinity.
The name Swindridgemuir refers to the prominent whinstone ridge and the associated moorland. A loch once also existed in the area, as recalled in the farm name, Kerselochmuir. John Smith of Swrindridgemuir was once famous for his agricultural improvements to moorland.
A local remembers being sent as a child to collect water from Rabbie's Well by farmhands who were working in the nearby fields. The water was added to barley and the drink helped to surpress thirst. The well or spring still pours forth from the rock face, however a stone cup on a chain and a stone trough were present until a local farmer destroyed them, concerned that locals were coming to the location.
The Corsehouse Burn forms a very attractive waterfall at the Swindridgemuir Spout and a small dam created a pool from which cast iron pipes once carried the pure water off towards Swindrigemuir House.
The Rabbie's Well woods have a rich flora and fauna, damaged unfortunately by cattle, but still contining rare plants and several unusually large introduced sweet chestnut trees!
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