Water bubbling overground and underground past the 150 year old wellhead has caused sink holes and deposits of orange, iron laden water staining our lovely renewed Caithness stone paths.
Spittal Improvement Trust and our Gardening Group have been helped by the Coastal NCC team to ameliorate the problem over a few years. We fund the planting and garden the flower borders originally planted back in 2013 with Leader EU funding including new paving and a reconstructed back wall.
This antique garden area has been delighting locals as well as catching the attention of passing coastal cyclists and cliff walkers for some years since refurbishment. Beach visitors also come to read the interpretation board, which explains the origins of the stone wellhead, and neighbouring ornate Victorian Villa known locally as Wilson Terrace. William Wilson’s tools were taken from his stone mason yard at the end of the old Berwick bridge after it’s demise and displayed in the Barracks Berwick museum.
Visitors from the Borders and even abroad came to take the Chalybeate spring waters at the well in the 19th and 20th century, staying in the villa and viewing the fisherfolk and herring barrel industry in the village.
All attempts to rescue the green from the overspills of underground water have been thwarted until this spring when an expert team of in-house NCC contractors deftly manoeuvred their diggers and saved this pleasant garden from ruin. Skilful work on the steep slopes has enabled waters to be diverted into new pipework with tons of gravel laid below the top soil and new turf. This beauty spot is renewed and the village volunteer gardening teams have started to catch up with weeding, pruning and planting of the flower beds for the summer season.
Many thanks to the NCC teams involved (from SIT, CAAG and SGG)
