Scotland’s Final Witch Execution
The sleepy parish of Penicuik in Midlothian, now known for curling matches and quiet countryside walks, once bore witness to scenes of terror — fires that weren’t for warmth, and trials that weren’t just. Between the late 16th and early 18th centuries, Scotland was gripped by an extraordinary moral panic: the hunt for witches. Fueled by religious extremism, social unrest, and legal endorsement, thousands were accused, tortured, and executed.
In Penicuik alone, records show the horrific burning of six women in the year 1629. Women like Christian Thomson, Isobel Dryburgh, and Margaret Smail were executed under the direction of the church and local authorities. They were not isolated victims. Janet Bishop, Janet Pennycuick, and Margaret Endherson followed within the same year, executed for crimes that, today, we would recognize as nothing more than rumor, mental illness, or social nonconformity.
This wasn't simply a rural anomaly — it was a countrywide pattern. The scale of the Scottish witch hunts is startling: between the mid-1500s and 1736, it’s estimated that over 3,800 people were accused of witchcraft. At least two-thirds were executed, most of them women. The most common penalty? Death by strangulation, followed by burning at the stake — a gruesome public spectacle intended both to punish and deter.
Yet, even in the horror of this period, the ending of it tells a story not just of persecution, but of change. The last woman officially executed for witchcraft in Scotland was Janet Horne, burned in Dornoch in 1722. Her death marked the conclusion of an era — but not before centuries of fear and injustice had left deep scars.
The Case of Janet Horne: Madness or Malevolence?
Janet Horne’s case is particularly chilling for its simplicity — and tragedy. She was an elderly woman from Loth, in Sutherland. Local authorities accused her of witchcraft after her daughter, who suffered from a physical disability, was said to have been transformed into a pony by her mother, then shod by the Devil. Janet was likely suffering from dementia or another form of age-related mental illness, which in that superstitious time was easily interpreted as evidence of Satanic influence.
Convicted swiftly, Janet was sentenced to death. She was stripped, tarred, paraded through the town, and burned alive. Her daughter, the alleged “pony,” managed to escape execution.
It is grimly ironic that this event occurred just 14 years before the Witchcraft Act of 1735 repealed the original 1563 act that made witchcraft punishable by death. While that legislation didn’t exonerate Janet Horne, it signaled the formal end of witch executions in Britain and ushered in a new legal and cultural era.
But it wasn't as if the belief in witchcraft died immediately. The 1743 records of the Associate Presbytery — a religious group — denounced the repeal of the witchcraft laws as “contrary to the express law of God.” Even as legal persecution ended, religious and social fears lingered for decades.
Who Were the Witch Hunters?
It’s easy to assume that the witch hunts were carried out by angry mobs or sadistic rulers. But in Scotland, the situation was more complex. Witch hunts were deeply embedded in church governance and the judicial system.
In Penicuik, ministers and presbytery members often played an active role in accusing and condemning alleged witches. The Rev. Mr. French, for instance, was likely the informer in several local cases, bringing accused women before the Dalkeith Presbytery. These were men of education and status — not fringe fanatics — yet they helped facilitate torture and death on spurious spiritual grounds.
Further, men like Mr. John Clerk, a respected laird and Commissioner of the Privy Council, were enlisted to oversee trials. In a particularly twisted case, seven women from Loanhead were accused by fellow witches — themselves already condemned to burn. Among those accused was Gideon Penman, a former minister, whom the devil allegedly called “my chaplain.” Penman denied the charges and was released on bail, but the stain of accusation was lasting.
A Posthumous Reckoning
Despite the horror of this era, only in recent decades has Scotland begun to grapple publicly with its legacy. Efforts have been made to memorialize the victims of witch trials — many of whom were innocent women who faced death for being old, outspoken, poor, or simply unlucky.
In 2022, marking 300 years since the death of Janet Horne, the First Minister of Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon, issued an official apology to all those accused and executed under the Witchcraft Act. It was a symbolic but significant act, recognizing that state-sanctioned injustice had stolen lives, devastated families, and haunted communities for generations.
Memorial projects across Scotland are now under way — from plaques and public art to digital archives and community storytelling events — all aimed at reclaiming the human stories buried under centuries of fear.
From Fire to Reflection
What happened in Penicuik, Dornoch, and countless other Scottish parishes wasn’t just mass hysteria or religious extremism. It was a deadly mixture of law, belief, and power — one that enabled ordinary people to commit extraordinary cruelty under the guise of righteousness. Women were especially vulnerable, not because they were witches, but because they were convenient scapegoats in a deeply patriarchal and anxious society.
The witch trials are a reminder of what can happen when fear is politicized, when religion overrules justice, and when people stop questioning the systems they are part of. As we walk today through tranquil cemeteries and pass the churchyards where innocent lives were extinguished, we would do well to remember those who died not for what they did, but for what they were wrongly believed to be.
Adapted From: Wilson, J. J. (1891). The annals of Penicuik: Being a history of the parish and of the village. Edinburgh: Privately printed by T. & A. Constable.
