Witch! This was perhaps the most fearsome word encountered by Kathrin Key, resident of the small fishing town of Newburgh in Fife. Witches were powerful. They could curse and cure, make cattle sick, kill children and fly broomsticks. Their magical abilities came from the devil. Satan! Auld Nick! In order to gain that power, they [...]
Isobel Gowdie was a difficult assignment for us. Spooky Scotland has taken us to many haunted destinations. However, it seems that we pass through Auldearn on a regular occurrence to get to many other spooky sites: Cawdor Castle, Rait Castle, the Clava Cairns and Culloden Moor to name a few. On the surface, Auldearn appears [...]
Between 1563 and 1763 Scotland was a country in flux and the resulting paranoia fueled the Scottish Witch Trials. Belief in witchcraft was common during the Middle Ages, but the leaders of the Catholic church were largely skeptical, seeing it as folklore rather than something sinister. Lawyers were only interested in cases were harm [...]