Lord Moncrieff, the owner of Tullibole Castle in Kinross, Scotland, has an interesting new project developing on his grounds. He's building a maze to honor those executed for witchcraft by one of his predecessors.
In the seventeenth century, Tullibole was the home of one William Halliday, who presided over a series of hearings in which eleven locals were sentenced to death for having dealings with the devil himself. Moncrieff is building "a Witches' Maze with the names of the victims etched on an elaborate pillar at its heart." He says the maze, made of about two thousand beech trees, will be a "shrine to secularism and rational thought."
Halliday's court convened five times in 1662. Defendants were held prisoner until brought to trial, and once found guilty -- because they were always found guilty -- were strangled by a hangman and their bodies burned.
Interestingly, Moncrieff himself doesn't seem to accept the existance of any sort of paranormal or supernatural goings-on, and from the article, it sounds like he thinks the very idea of witchcraft is kind of silly. He points out on his website that "Believers in supernatural powers were responsible for witchcraft trials." However, he does make a good case for the concepts of logic and rational thought, something we can all get behind. Whatever his motivation, I think the memorial maze sounds like a really nice idea.
In the seventeenth century, Tullibole was the home of one William Halliday, who presided over a series of hearings in which eleven locals were sentenced to death for having dealings with the devil himself. Moncrieff is building "a Witches' Maze with the names of the victims etched on an elaborate pillar at its heart." He says the maze, made of about two thousand beech trees, will be a "shrine to secularism and rational thought."
Halliday's court convened five times in 1662. Defendants were held prisoner until brought to trial, and once found guilty -- because they were always found guilty -- were strangled by a hangman and their bodies burned.
Interestingly, Moncrieff himself doesn't seem to accept the existance of any sort of paranormal or supernatural goings-on, and from the article, it sounds like he thinks the very idea of witchcraft is kind of silly. He points out on his website that "Believers in supernatural powers were responsible for witchcraft trials." However, he does make a good case for the concepts of logic and rational thought, something we can all get behind. Whatever his motivation, I think the memorial maze sounds like a really nice idea.
Seare,South West Scotland 30/03/2009 18:40:01
“Burning witches is old news”. WRONG!!!!!!
A petition was presented to Jack Straw on October 31, 2008 calling for a posthumous pardon for men and women who were executed as British witches?
An official pardon was granted in 2008 by the Swiss government to Anna Goeldi who was beheaded in 1782. She is regarded as the last person executed as a witch in Europe, four years before Burns’ First Edition and eight before Tam o’Shanter.
Dumfries: Burns Witch Project;
Bank Street, Whitesands, Dumfries.
Whitesands; where nine (so-called) convicted, witches were legally strangled and burned on July 13th 1659, three hundred and fifty years ago this year.
Should/could we remember this act.