‘It’s upset a lot of people’: outrage after tidy-up of Scottish sacred well

Plans for community to care for clootie' well after offerings cleared away by well-meaning stranger

At the end of a steep woodland trail, surrounded by sturdy beech and ash trees, a freshwater spring bubbles into a basic stone well, rippling in the low winter sunlight.

On nearby branches and around the mouth of the well colourful cloth rags - or cloots - have been hung by visitors, as an offering to a water spirit or local saint and an entreaty to be healed.