Folklore & legend

The Priest's Grave and the Healing Spring of Unst

Also known as: Yelabron; Hielyaburn; Burn of Health

Hielyaburn (Yelabron), Unst (exact site not located)

Undated; custom recorded 1822 and 1899

Hibbert in 1822 and Spence in 1899 both describe Yelabron or Hielyaburn in Unst, which Hibbert glosses as the burn of health. Spence tells that a priest came to teach the old inhabitants the doctrine of the White Christ, and that they refused him and plotted his death. He was waylaid near the Heugins of Watley. Asking a moment to pray, he prayed that a fountain might flow from his grave for the healing of the people's bodies, since they would not hear him for the good of their souls. He was killed and buried on the hillside, and the spring broke out there.

Everyone who took water left three stones, or three coins, so a large cairn built up at the head of the spring, and Spence remembered finding old Danish coins there as a boy. When the water was carried to a sick person the journey was made between sunset and sunrise. The carrier might hear a gaenfore or see a feyness, a white mouse or black fowl crossing the path, and read the patient's chances from it. The water must not touch the ground, so the vessel was set on a millstone.

The exact site was not found on modern maps, so the pin is at the island.

Evidence
Long-standing local tradition
Access
Open ground
Location
60.760, -0.896 (Parish-level only, treat as an area)

Sources: John Spence, Shetland Folk-Lore (Lerwick, 1899) [public-domain]; Samuel Hibbert, A Description of the Shetland Islands (1822) [public-domain]; G. F. Black and N. W. Thomas, Examples of Printed Folk-Lore concerning the Orkney and Shetland Islands (Folk-Lore Society, 1903) [public-domain]

View on the map →

Comments

Loading…