Witch back from the dead in time for Halloween

Woman’s face recreated

The face of a Scottish “witch” has been recreated in time for Halloween, more than 300 years after she met her grisly end.

Experts at Dundee University have used the latest 3D technology to replicate the features of Lilias Adie, a Fife woman who died in 1704.

The unfortunate Lilias had confessed to being a witch and having sex with the devil but died in jail before she could be tried, sentenced and burned.

She was buried deep in the sticky mud of the foreshore at Torryburn in south-west Fife with a flat, heavy stone placed on top so she could not come back to haunt her persecutors.

And there she lay, until her remains were dug up by antiquarians in the 19th Century for study and display.

Their biggest prize, her skull, went to St Andrews University museum until it went missing in the 20th Century.

However, photographs of the dark souvenir remain and they have now been transformed by a forensic artist at the Centre for Anatomy and Human Identification at Dundee University.

Dr Christopher Rynn used state-ofthe-art 3D virtual sculpture and with forensic facial reconstruction methods to produce a very different picture of Lilias from the stereotypical “witchy” haunting eye sockets and prominent buck teeth of her skull.

Dr Rynn said: “There was nothing in Lilias’ story that suggested to me that nowadays she would be considered as anything other than a victim of horrible circumstances so I saw no reason to pull the face into an unpleasant or mean expression and she ended up having quite a kind face, quite naturally.”

The results will feature in a Halloween special of BBC Radio Scotland’ s Time Travels programme which broadcasts today.

Above: Time Travels presenter Susan Morrison with Dr Christopher Rynn. Below: the skull was transformed into images of how Lilias would have looked back in the 18th Century, centre, and today, right.