Willie Shand shares a sprinkling of knowledge about Scotland’s fountains.
LIFE cannot exist without water. It may be tasteless, odourless and provide no organic nutrients, but to all living forms, it is essential.
Since the dawn of civilisation, Man has sought ways of collecting precious clean drinking water.
The ancient Romans found their solution through creating aqueducts and gravity-fed fountains.
The word fountain comes from the Latin fons – a spring or source. In earliest times, fountains had a purely functional role.
Until the late 1800s, fountains had to work by gravity. The source of the water supply had therefore to be at a higher level than the fountain.
Later, mechanical pumps made this less of an issue and water could be shot higher and higher into the air to great dramatic effect.
Since 1951, the famous Jet d’Eau in Geneva has been spouting 110 gallons per second to a height of 460 feet.
The world’s highest fountain, though, is King Fahd’s in Saudi Arabia, rising to a mind-blowing 853 feet above the Red Sea. You wouldn’t want to drink from it, though, as it operates on salt water.
Here in Britain, by the late 1800s, most places were moving to piped supplies for their water, so fountains became more of an ornamental feature to landscaped parks, country houses and town squares.
Scotland has a wonderful variety of fountains – some small and simple, some grand and elaborate.
There’s a good chance any ornate cast-iron fountains came from the Saracen, or the Sun Foundries in Glasgow. They were shipped from there all over the world.
Stone-built examples would have been skilfully hand-crafted by the stonemason and there’s no finer an example than the King’s Fountain in Linlithgow Palace.
It also claims to be Britain’s oldest surviving fountain.
Fountains may have been erected in memory of, or gifted by, people with connection to a place, like the John Drysdale Fountain in East Lothian or the Alexander Martin Fountain in Dunning. Others may be there to mark an event.
There’s one little fountain that always manages to put a smile on my face any time I pass it. It sits in the woods above Crieff Hydro.
The plaque above its spout reads: “Jesus said. He that drinketh of this water shall thirst again but whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst.”
Immediately below, another more recent notice has been added – “This water is not suitable for human consumption.”
This is just a selection of the rich variety of fountains to be found close to home. Don’t just pass them by.
Next time, st
