History of the Springs part I

The waters have flowed from the ancient springs on Pannanich Hill for thousands of years, but the earliest records were made around 1245 by the Knights Templar - the Kings Bodyguards who are reported to have sampled the waters on their journeys through the Deeside Valley.

Around 1760, the spa waters became widely publicised when a local woman, Isabella Michie, who suffered from scrofula, (a fatal condition of the time), was led to Pannanich Wells and was completely cured, by bathing in and drinking the water.

At this time, Francis Farquharson, Laird of Monaltrie, a well to do local Lord, heard of the waters great powers. He had the foresight to build the Inn and bath houses for visitors and the granite monuments at the springs from where the waters flow to this day.

Word quickly spread about the curative waters and after many successes, visitors from near and far, the rich and poor all descended upon the area to taste and bathe in the "miracle waters" and the nearby village of Ballater grew up as a spa town to accommodate them.

Adverts appeared in the Aberdeen Journal in the 1790s, placed by a local surgeon - Jonathan Troup, who was in attendance at Pannanich Wells each week. He had devised appropriate doses of water to be taken and also recommended the best methods of bathing to treat skin complaints.

In 1843 James Brown wrote, "These Wells (Pannanich) ...Here at all times but more especially in summer, is a most immense concourse of people, from all parts of the country, afflicted with all manner of diseases, so that it may almost be compared to the “Pool of Siloam”. People afflicted with rheumatism - people in a consumption - rickety bairns....people ill in the typhus, scarlet and other fevers, all flock here to drink the waters in whose efficacy they have great faith."