A group which is raising awareness about the Scottish witch trials are holding a National Day of Remembrance for accused witches.

The Creative Coven, which has some members from Fife, is preparing to host The Weaving Creative Threads Event at the Scottish Storytelling Centre this summer.

The event is not for profit, and all the money will go to fund a Witches Memorial Grove in the Caledonian Forest. 

West Fife has numerous witches who will be remembered along with all of the other people accused of witchcraft.

Perhaps the best-known is Lilias Adie. She was accused by her neighbour of bringing her ill-health and of being a witch. Lilias, who was confused and terrified, confessed to the crime, but died in 1704 before her trial had taken place.

She was buried on the shoreline in Torryburn under a stone slab, out of fear that her corpse could be reanimated to haunt the town. Sadly, Lilias’ resting spot was disturbed, and her skull was removed on the orders of Joseph Neil Paton. It is thought that it eventually came into the care of the University of St Andrews, but her skull has since gone missing.

A campaign was launched back in 2019 to find Lilias’ skull to give her a respectful burial. Joseph Neil Paton’s descendent, Cat Berry, is also working to find the skull to put right this wrong.

Women accused of witchcraft in Dunfermline include Jonett (Janet) Fentoun Marr who died in prison in 1643. Another accused, Isobell Marr, committed suicide in jail and similarly to Jonett, was carried up to Witch Knowe and buried in an unmarked grave. These two women were among many in Dunfermline who lost their lives due to the witch hunt.

As previously reported in the Press, there are plans for a national memorial for those killed during the witch trials to be built in Kelty.

Samantha Neill, who runs the social media and promotion for The Creative Coven, and who is also a West Fife and coastal villages councillor, commented on the group’s beginning: “It was a couple of year ago now, and they have done a few events, they’ve done a few in Culross actually.”

Many women are involved with the group, including Rowan Morrison.

Rowan wrote a book called The Witches of Culross which was inspired by the true story of a mother and daughter in the town who were both executed for witchcraft in the 17th century.

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“There were about 625 unknown people lost in the Scottish Witch Trial records, so on the Facebook group, Rowan had asked everybody if they could do a pencil or charcoal drawing of a face to represent those people," added Samantha.

“All these drawings are going to be made into a collaborative video on the day.”

A range of workshops will be on offer at The Weaving Threads event in the summer. There will be a presentation on Scottish beliefs at the time by Scott Richardson Reid, a musical performance by Joss Cameron and Amy Dudley, and much more.

Samantha added: “We are just really glad, because there hasn’t been anything national to kind of commemorate anything.

“Doing events like this is kind of good to promote it, and hopefully that will get people thinking.”

The event will take place on Tuesday, June 4, the same date as the Witchcraft Act of 1563 became active. Tickets can be purchased here.