Dunse Spa

Dunse Spa was a famed well near Duns in Berwickshire. The name spelled 'Dunse' is an older spelling of the parish's name. The well stood in the ground of Nisbet House and had a brief flowering of popularity before its quality declined and it was abandoned..

The Rev. Robert Bowmaker wrote, in the First Statistical Account of Scotland (1791-99) wrote of the well, which he called 'Dunse Spaw':

There are no mineral springs in the Parish [Dunse] but there is one within a few hundred yards of the boundary in the estate of Mrs. Carr of Nisbet in the Parish of Edrom. It is called Dunse Spaw from its vicinity to the Town being only a mile distant. It was discovered in 1747 and was very much resorted to for several years. Some time ago it was repaired at the expence of a gentleman who was cured of a stomach disorder by the Spaw water. The mineral water is nearly of the same kind with that of Tunbridge, the most celebrated chalybeate water in England. Dunse Spaw according to the analysis of it published by Professor Home at Edinburgh 1761 contains iron, sea salt, a marley earth and fixed air of what is called aerial acid. Like most other chalybeate waters it does not carry well unless the usual methods are practised in transporting the foreign chalybeate waters. Although the water may thus be carried to a great distance without losing its properties in a considerable degree yet it must unquestionably be drunk with greater advantage on the spot. The water is found very salutary in complaints of the stomach, weakness of the intestines, diabetes and a fgreat variety of other disorders. The best months for drinking Dunse Spaw are June, July, August and September when the valetudinarian and persons subject to chronic disorders may by a course of these waters reap every advantage to be procured by any chalybeate water whatever.

With such enthusiastic praise heaped upon the spring, there were hopes that it would grow to be s great a visitor attraction as the famed baths and wells of Bath and Wells, in Somerset.

In 1840, which was in the height of the fashion for spa towns and hydrotherapy, the owner of the estate had an ashlar wall built and drained the surrounding meadow in order make the site more attractive to visitors. However his drainage scheme caused the spring to disappear. Subsequent attempts to recover it proving fruitless.

In the Second Statistical Account (1834-45) the Rev George Cunninghame records:

The Dunse Spa analyzed by Dr. Francis Home about the year 1751 at which time it was in much repute is now entirely neglected - having sunk in reputation ever since it was analyzed, its waters having become mixed with the ordinary springs in the neighbourhood are considered as destitute of any efficacy".