Monument Project Underway for Scottish Witches

Back in the heyday of the witch hunts, Scotland found more than four thousand people guilty of practicing witchcraft and sorcery. A recent attempt to gain a mass pardon has failed, but that hasn't stopped an alliance of Scottish historians, witches and Pagans from asking for a memorial to the dead.

Parliament decided last month that "a pardon for all of Scotland's witches would be inappropriate as 'the people were tried and convicted in the laws at the time'... further, it may be particularly difficult to apply modern knowledge and concepts of morality to events which took place centuries ago."

Ewan Irvine started the memorial campaign following efforts to clear the name of medium Helen Duncan, who was the last woman in Britain convicted of witchcraft. Irvine says, "Many of those killed in one of the darkest chapters of Scottish history were the forerunners of today's herbalists, midwives, chemists and acupuncturists and practitioners of what we would call alternative therapies." He and other supporters would like to see "a memorial in the form of a cairn or tree with a suitable plaque."

The Scottish Pagan community seems to be pretty supportive of the idea, and John Macintyre, of the Pagan Federation for Scotland, believes "the main value of such a memorial would be as a reminder of the dangers of scapegoating innocent people when a society feels under pressure." Another person who has publicly spoken in favor of the project is 74-year-old Mary Martin of Craigmillar. Her grandmother was Helen Duncan.