BUCHANAN CASTLE ESTATE, WELL HOUSE
ACCESS : You can approach it, but not enter it.
Listed : B
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Also see : Buchanan Castle : index.asp?pageid=736941
This circular well house is situated on the edge of a stand of trees, to the East of Old Buchanan House. It is a circular, rubble-built building divided into 5 bays by 6 perpendicular ashlar buttresses with coping and square capstones. To the SE bay is a timber-boarded door with a blind rectangular opening above, and the 2 flanking bays have narrow round-arched openings, with blind square openings above and ashlar margins. The shallow domed brick roof is concealed below the corniced wallhead. Inside the well house is a stone flagged floor with a central circular well shaft.
The Well House is part of the Buchanan Castle estate. The policies of Buchanan Castle are included in the Inventory of Gardens and Designed Landscapes in Scotland. [Historic Environment Scotland listing text]
Well houses were generally built over a mineral spring to protect the source, to keep it clean and sometimes keep livestock out. This one is a basic shape, but one that is in keeping with a castle estate. There are two natural sources of fresh water nearby in the Endrick Water and Loch Lomond, but by digging a well, encircling it and roofing it, it would be ensured of better quality drinking water.
CANMORE : https://canmore.org.uk/site/294246/buchanan-castle-hospital-and-military-camp
HISTORIC ENVIRONMENT SCOTLAND : https://portal.historicenvironment.scot/designation/LB50454
