Digital Pub project

St. Ninian's Well

It was believed that St. Ninian's well was holy, and its water had magical properties that could both heal and curse people. The well would be referenced in 49 year-old Bessie Stevenson's witch trial as proof of her dark magic. According to her case, Stevenson washed people's clothes in St. Ninian's well for healing. This would either 'end them or mend them.' She learned it from lady McFarlen's daughter 24 years prior. On her way back to the well, she would transfer the disease if she meet anyone. While Bessie confessed to healing with deeds, she denied the accusations of witchcraft or using of words. She plead not guilty, but to no avail. The council found her guilty and she was executed.

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Mailing Gallows or, Black Boy Fountain

What is now Black Boy Fountain was once the Mailing Gallows. Up until 1820, when the Radical Weavers Baird and Hardie were hanged and beheaded in Broad Street, executions were performed outside the Burgh Wall here.

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Mercat Cross

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Tolbooth

Before the Tolbooth was an entertainment venue, it was a prison, holding offenders before they were tried. Accused witches like Bessie Stevenson and Mary Mitchell were held prisoner here and forced through torture to give a confession.

From University of Edinburgh's witch survey: "Typically if a suspect was interrogated they would be expected to confess to making a pact with the Devil and to harming their neighbours by maleficent witchcraft, though one or other of these was often omitted: Neighbours' testimony. Statements by neighbours usually ignored the Devil. They usually described quarrels with the suspect followed by misfortune they had suffered. Other witches' testimony. When witches were interrogated they were sometimes asked about their accomplices. The people they named could then be arrested and interrogated. This was an effective way of increasing the numbers of suspects; it seems mainly to have happened during short periods of intense witch-hunting. The Devil's mark. The Devil was believed to mark his followers at the time when they made a pact with him, as a parody of Christian baptism. A physical search of the suspect's body could find this mark—either a visible bodily blemish or an insensitive spot. The insensitive spot was discovered by pricking with pins, sometimes by the interrogators themselves and sometimes by itinerant professional witch-prickers (of whom about 10 are known to have acted in Scotland)."

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