Hibbert, in his 1822 Description of the Shetland Islands, wrote of a very small pool among the hills a mile or two north-west of Hillswick, named Helga Water or the Water of Health. He thought the natives had formerly visited it with superstitious views and probably with the same ceremonies as were used from time immemorial in Orkney: walking round it with the course of the sun, keeping strict silence, taking up water in the hands and casting it over the head.
Spence names Helga Water in Northmavine alongside Yelabron in Unst as famous for health-giving properties, in a passage on how the names themselves seem to imply it.
The record rests on Hibbert's account of an older custom and on the place name. The pin follows the water as mapped north-west of Hillswick.
Comments