In a small coastal city in Essex County, Massachusetts, the Old Burying Point Cemetery serves as a particularly bleak resting place. That city is Salem – a name universally associated with the punishment of accused witches, having held its infamous trials between 1692 and 1693. In total, 162 people were dragged before the law; 52 were tried, 30 condemned, and 20 put to death, most by hanging, one by crushing, and five in prison. It’s been the grim inspiration for some of the 20th century’s most-loved art – spanning Arthur Miller’s play The Crucible to Walt Disney Pictures’ Hocus Pocus and the unforgettable Sanderson Sisters.
But the story of Scotland’s history with witchcraft is far more shocking. Under the Scottish Witchcraft Act, established in 1563, the practice of alleged witchcraft was deemed a capital offence. Over the course of nearly 200 years, an estimated 3,837 people (84 per cent of whom were women) were tried as witches. It is believed that two-thirds of these people were executed – by hanging, burning, or both. It wasn’t until 8 March 2022 that these thousands of people received a public apology from Scotland’s
