After perusing the excellent Joseph Noel Paton exhibition at the Carnegie Library and Galleries, Dunfermline, we found another fascinating display in the smaller hall. Witches in Word, Not Deed, remembers 13 women persecuted as a result of the 1536 Witchcraft Act. Through historically accurate and illuminated white dresses worn by empty forms, the exhibition aims to highlight the loss of identity suffered by the wrongly accused.
Each garment is imprinted with words used against these women, or found in the enduring legacy of folktales and other misconceptions that replaced the true humanity. The witch trials belong in Scotland's catalogue of shame. Roughly 4000 people were accused, the vast majority of them female. Only Spain comes close to this level of debasement. Stripped of the right to any meaningful defence, around 2500 people were executed - the mandated punishment for anyone found guilty. Some died as a result of torture or imprisonment. Others by suicide. Just down the road from us, in the coastal village of Torryburn, lies the only known resting place of a Scottish woman accused of witchcraft (and fornicating with the devil). Lilias Adie was dumped in the intertidal zone in 1704, having passed away in custody. A large slab was placed upon the burial site, lest the corpse be reanimated by Old Nick himself. The grave was robbed in 1852 and there is an ongoing campaign to locate remains and inter them with dignity. The grave site can easily be viewed from Torryburn beach during low tide.
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