WHICH WITCH?

Mystery surrounds a strange monument in rural Perthshire dedicated to someone of whom no records can be found…

GRAEME JOHNCOCK

“Maggie Wall burnt here 1657 as a witch”. So reads the white, hand-painted declaration on a crude, cross-topped cairn just outside the village of Dunning in Perthshire. Maggie Wall’s Memorial is a sober reminder of a dark chapter in Scottish history, but what makes it even more interesting is that we have no idea who Maggie was or if she even existed at all. Scotland was particularly vicious in its persecution of witches in the 17th century, with stories of innocents being tortured and executed for witchcraft sadly common across the country. In total, around 4000 people were accused, over 80% of them women. Maggie Wall’s Memorial is a mystery in that nobody knows who built it or why. There are plenty of local monuments such as the Witches Stone…

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Scotland (Digital) - 1 Issue, May - June 2024

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