The Well of The Seven Heads sits off Loch Oich, south of Invergarry, you can see it from the roadside. This unusual obelisk was erected by Colonel MacDonnel of Glengarry in 1812 as a memory to his two murdered sons.
The sons were murdered in In 1663 when a viscous fight took place with an uncle and his six sons. The Colonel ordered that the uncle and his sons be put to death to avenge the loss of his sons – he wanted their heads. Sixty men stormed the uncle’s house, the seven men were executed, their heads removed from their bodies. The dismembered heads were then washed in the spring where the obelisk now sits,before being taken to the Chief in Invergarry. Ever since this event, the spring has been known as ‘Tobar-nan-ceann’, ‘The Well of the Heads’.
The Gaelic inscription, seen on the front of the obelisk, tells the story of the well, and on the top of the monument is a sculpture of the seven heads of the murderers
I didn’t know there was an underneath the well,but I found the monument fasinating,part of the not so known Scotland that should be.
Would love to visit again sometime.
You said the monumnet was erected in 1812 to his two murdered sons. He mustve been a gie auld man then , cos the murders happened in 1663 !
Yes, I agree. Ridiculous.
Does longevity normally run so rampant in Clan MacDonnel? According to this narrative, Colonel MacDonnel erected the obelisk 149 years after his sons were murdered. It’s a terrible thing to outlive your offspring but this is just bloody ridiculous!
iYea it seems to, my Great Grand father was born in 1896 an for Canada in WW1 he also fought in WW2, but didn’t wear a kilt then.But anyway he lived to be 98 an his mother was 103. My gramma lived to 92. I was told by my great aunt who lived to 99 that all of there family livied to a very old age. She had my GG grandfathers kilt from the war 1 I’m still trying to figure out who has it, as my aunt said it would be mine someday.
Not sure why they haven’t seen this. Embarrassing.
Hi there,
Can you tell me why the Clan Crest has been changed. My Uncle who has since passed did anmassive amount of searching for the Clan our family is apart of with the moto per terra per mare. As a result of his years of tracing the geneolgy of our family i have had the Clan crest tattooed on me as I used your web page a number of years ago to ensure we had the correct crest. Which has. Ow been complete changed.
I would love to know how such a mistake could be made for so long.
I may need to fix up the poor grammar.
Man, them MacDonalds members are savage.
I wonder what the family name is today… ;P