Mounting calls for a pardon and women killed in Scots witch hunts

witchcraft, faces prosecution in TV hit Outlander

a good thing to send a message to the wider world that we apologise to those who were killed as witches.”

Julian Goodare, professor of history at the University of Edinburgh and director of the Survey of Scottish Wi t c h c r a f t , said: “During the Reformation, the state wanted to stamp out ungodliness. In the late 1500s, Scotland believed the devil was at work in the land and that Satan was recruiting secret agents to do his bidding – witches.”

In 1590, Scotland’s King James VI’S fear of witchcraft began to stir up national panics, resulting in the torture and death of thousands of so- called witches in Scotland, 85% of whom were women. “Out of a population of roughly a million people, about 2,500

The first major witch hunt was in 1590, when King James VI believed his Danish bride Anne had been targeted by witches who conjured storms to try to kill the royals during their voyages across the North Sea. One of the first accused was Geillis Duncan, from Tranent in East Lothian who, after being tortured, named several accomplices. King James sanctioned witch trials after accused witch Agnes Sampson’s confession revealed that 200 witches had sailed – in sieves – to the church of North Berwick on Halloween night to hear the devil preach and encourage them to plot the king’s destruction. Geillis Duncan and Agnes Sampson were two of many put to death and more than 100 people implicated during the North Berwick trials. accused witches were executed – five times the average European execution rate per capita,” said Dr Goodare.

Historian Dr Louise Yeoman, who presents the BBC Scotland podcast Witch Hunt, said: “Women who stepped out of line or were considered sexually immoral or who just didn’t fit in, were scapegoated as witches.”

Sara Kelly, of Witches of Scotland, who is campaigning for a national monument, said: “The witch hunts were a historical injustice and in the era of # Metoo and Black Lives Matter, it’s timely to remember these persecuted women.”

Lilias Adie of Torryburn in Fife was accused of practising witchcraft and fornicating with the Devil, but died in prison in 1704 before sentence could be passed.

Her grave is the only known one in Scotland of an accused witch as most were burned at the stake after being strangled to death.

Lilias, who was 60, was tortured until she confessed to having sex with the Devil and renouncing her baptism.

In 2014, historian Dr Louise Yeoman and archaeologist Douglas Speirs, found a slab of stone on the beach at Torryburn Bay that covered Lilias’ remains. It had been dug up in 1852 by grave-robbers and walking sticks had been made from her coffin. Her skull was displayed in museums until it went missing but photos were taken in 1904 and held in the National Library of Scotland.

Using these in 2017, Dr Christopher Rynn and a team of forensic artists at Dundee University reconstructed what Adie’s face might have looked like – the only image we have of one of Scotland’s “witches”. Last year Fife Council held a memorial service and a wreath was laid at the site of her grave to raise awareness of the persecution of women in the Fife witchcraft panics.

Reconstruction of Lilias Adie’s face

In the early 1700s mob justice led to the death of women accused of witchcraft in Pittenweem, Fife. Four confessed to witchcraft but retracted their confessions. The authorities in Edinburgh refused to allow a trial and the suspects were released.

But in 1705 a crowd killed Janet Cornfoot by dragging her to the beach, stringing her up between a ship and the harbour to throw stones at her, and placing a door on top of her and piling heavy stones on it until she died.